US | water Water Main Break Leaves 2 Million Parched Massachusetts governor declares state of emergency By Marie Morris Posted May 2, 2010 2:00 PM CDT Copied Gov. Deval Patrick (fourth from left) visits a tunnel at the site of a water main break in Weston, Mass., Sunday, May 2, 2010. The pipe feeds into the pipe that failed, creating a state of emergency. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) Tap water in most of eastern Massachusetts is unsafe to drink following a water main break yesterday in a suburb west of Boston. Some 2 million residents must boil water for at least 1 minute before drinking it, making baby formula, or brushing their teeth, a situation one official described to the Globe as "everyone’s worst nightmare in the water industry." The outage, caused when a 7-year-old pipe ruptured, created a run on bottled water after the water authority switched to its backup system, which uses what another official called "untreated pond water." The governor said today the situation is less dire than originally feared, describing restoration of a safe drinking water supply as a matter of "days not weeks." Read These Next Trump aide gives punny response to Springsteen. Brazilian influencer is dead at 27 after cosmetic surgery. One US Olympian just got engaged to another. Conan O'Brien finally speaks on deaths of Rob and Michele Reiner. Report an error