Boise, ID (CBS2) — On Tuesday, February 28 students at Caldwell High School were sent home at noon due to a water line that burst.

Crews were working on replacing the water meter at Caldwell High School on Tuesday morning while school was in session after trying to bypass the meter without shutting the water off to the school. The Pipe that ran from the meter to the school's pipe network was not restrained and when the bypass was activated and the meter removed the pipe blew into the meter vault with full pressure.

Crews were not able to access the meter vault which prompted the shutdown of the mainline supply to the school leaving students and staff without potable water. School officials then made the decision to send students home for the remainder of the day.

Crews spent the remainder of the day pumping out the vault and repairing the pipe that burst. They then made sure that the water was free from bacteria before deeming it safe for use.

Brent Orton Public Works Director with the City of Caldwell said Caldwell regrets the emergency created to which the school district had to react and appreciates their partnership in resolving the problem. There were lessons learned during this incident. He says that crews could have performed the work during school hours had they planned outages as a precaution. He also states that in similar instances where similar work has to be urgently done that prevents a planned outage, crews will validate that the appropriate pipe restraints are in place before utilizing a meter bypass.

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