Maybrook Public Works employees were busy in the wee hours of September 19, repairing a major water leak in the Country Club Heights section of the village.

At about 12:30 a.m. that morning, Orange County 911 notified the village of a large water leak on an eight-inch main on the 200 block of Chrystal Drive. The leak of an estimated 650,000 gallons caused a drop in the water levels in the storage tanks of the village system, most notably in the water tower off Rakov Road.

Matthew Thorp, Department of Public Works (DPW) Superintendent, and his crew notified Mayor Dennis Leahy and, Leahy said, immediately got to work on repairs.

“I put out a Code Red notification,” Leahy said, “as well as put it on Facebook, Instagram and the village website.”

Leahy said that, by 5 a.m., the leak was isolated, the site excavated and the line repaired. Crews then had to remove sediment that had accumulated in the lines from the leak and flushed the hydrants in the area.

“The water pressure will be lower than usual throughout the village for at least the next 24-36 hours,” Thorp advised in the public notification, “as the storage tanks begin to refill from this event.”
Leahy added that refilling of the storage tanks would take some time because it was such a large amount of water lost.

Some village residents, notably living outside of Country Club Heights, noticed no change in their water service throughout the event. Some Country Club Heights residents, however, complained in social media that they still had no water or very low water pressure for two days following.
At press time, everything seemed back to normal for all residents.