photo by: Craig Howell

WVU Medicine Weirton Medical Center is bringing in outside water to maintain services during the city’s ongoing water crisis.

While many residents and businesses in and around Weirton continue to be affected by a lack of water service, the community’s major healthcare facility is operating as normally as possible.

According to officials with WVU Medicine Weirton Medical Center, patient care and operations at the hospital have continued without interruptions.

“Thanks to outside water sourcing from Water Transport of Hopedale, Ohio, hospital operations are normal,” notes a statement released Thursday morning by hospital officials. “We will continue to utilize Water Transport’s tanker trucks and thank them for their prompt attention to our needs assuring there’s no impact on patient care or operations.”

All of Weirton remains under a mandatory water conservation order, with the Weirton Heights area of the city also under a boil order.

The conservation order was issued Dec. 18 following a series of water line breaks in the city, with a city-wide boil order issued Dec. 27 after a break in a 12-inch main water line on Walnut Street led to outages throughout the city.

Problems were compounded by the failure of a primary pump at the water treatment plant and the refurbishment of a well as part of ongoing upgrades at the plant lowering the rate the water system is able to be filled.

The citywide boil order was partially lifted on Dec. 31, with a full lift of the order announced Jan. 3. However, on Jan. 22, officials notified residents water tank levels had been diminished, and some areas of the city would experience low to no water pressure. A new, ongoing boil order for Weirton Heights was issued Jan. 23.

Monday night, officials announced the city’s water system might not be stabilized until Feb. 10. The mandatory conservation order is expected to remain in place for much of February.