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Montgomery Lifts Advisory on Water
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The Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission, which operates water and sewer systems in Montgomery and Prince George's counties, plans to implement a computerized system that would send e-mails or text messages to customers affected by a water main break, agency spokesman Jim Neustadt said.
"There are definitely some things we can improve on, and we're definitely looking at those," he said.
Montgomery's public health hotline received more than 500 calls yesterday and more than 2,000 calls Tuesday, many from residents and restaurant owners who were confused about what to do, health officials said.
"There are still people wondering, 'Am I in the affected area or not?' " said Mary Anderson, a spokeswoman for the Montgomery Department of Health and Human Services.
In interviews this week, some restaurant operators said they did not know whether their water service was part of the potentially contaminated system. Others knew they were part of the system but opened their restaurants anyway. Others abided by the rules.
Adam Greenberg, an owner of the Potomac Pizza chain, said that he understood the county's caution but that officials went too far in closing restaurants, given that there were no reports of people becoming ill and no negative test results. He said restaurants had ways to boil water and operate cleanly. "Why shut everyone down?" Greenberg said.
Greenberg said county workers called his restaurants in Gaithersburg and Rockville about 11 a.m. Tuesday and told them to close for the day. Justin Marsden, a waiter who was scheduled to work a double shift, said that closing the restaurant cost him about $125 in after-tax wages and tips. He said he might have to dip into his small savings account to fund an upcoming vacation. "It definitely would have helped me," he said of the double shift.
Some County Council members said they were disappointed that representatives for Montgomery County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) had not disclosed Alert Montgomery's failure during a briefing Tuesday.
"There ought to be more than two people who know how to do this," said council member George Leventhal (D-At Large). "Otherwise, your whole emergency response capability goes out the window."
Leggett said the county is taking steps to ensure that more people "are in the loop" and trained to send out the alerts.
"It was a temporary glitch," he said, noting that the system has worked "perfectly well in the past."
Staff writer Ann E. Marimow and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.
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