Pittsburgh, PA – Cold, frigid weather may not dampen your holiday spirit, but a broken water pipe or backed up sewer will put the bah humbug on your most festive plans. Take stock of how falling temperatures may impact your pipes and learn how you can better protect your home from an unexpected water emergency.
“Harsh temperatures, as are expected this weekend, may cause pipes to freeze or even break,” said BJ McFaddin, PWSA’s Director of Operations. “When water freezes, it expands inside a pipe and places additional pressure on your plumbing system. Following a few simple tips can protect your pipes and help to prevent emergencies over the holidays and throughout the winter.”
Protect Your Pipes
Winter weather and temperatures can be harsh in Pittsburgh, which may result in burst water mains, frozen or broken pipes in your house or building, and other less-than-cheerful water or sewer emergencies. Thankfully, there are steps you can take to prepare and even prevent some of these would-be disasters. Take a few minutes to browse our tips for protecting your pipes for the best solution out there—prevention!
Report a Water or Sewer Emergency
If you do experience an unexpected water outage, it’s always helpful to check our Service Outages page where we have active and upcoming service outages listed with a map of affected locations for your convenience. If you don’t see your location listed, call our 24/7 Emergency Dispatch line at 412-255-2423 and press 1 for all water or sewer emergencies. Now is a good time to check if your contact information is up to date so you won’t miss an important call from us—we call customers during water emergencies and outages to keep them informed.
Properly Dispose of Grease
Cooking delicious meals is a great way to enjoy and celebrate the season, but make sure you’re not giving your drains and sewers heartburn, or worse, acid reflux! No one ever wants to deal with disgusting sewage backups, but this is especially true over the holidays. That’s why it’s incredibly important to properly dispose of fats, oils, and grease, also known as ‘FOGs’, from cooking! Defend your drains by canning grease and throwing the cooled remainder into the trash—not your sink drain! —and remembering to never flush anything but the 3 Ps: Pee, Poop, and Toilet Paper, down the toilet.
Put your mind at ease this holiday season by following our water and sewer emergency prevention tips, and know that help is always one call away whenever an urgent water or sewer issue may arise (such as low or no water pressure, a suspected water main break, or a sewage backup).
The quickest way to contact us is through our Emergency Dispatch line at 412-255-2423 (Press 1), available 24/7.
For non-emergency issues (such as billing or general questions), you can call our Customer Service at 412-255-2423 (Press 5) during normal business hours, Monday through Friday from 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, or simply fill out our Report an Issue webform online.
