WEIRTON — The Weirton Area Water Board continues its efforts to restore the distribution of water throughout the city, with officials noting crews have located and repaired more than line breaks since the end of November.

“It is a work in progress,” noted Utilities Director A.D. “Butch” Mastrantoni during Thursday’s meeting of the board. “To date, we have found and fixed 111 line breaks of various size and diameter.”

He explained, though, through assistance from leak detection crews from West Virginia American Water, more than 40 other leaks are being pinpointed, and there still is the possibility of others, especially with cold weather expected to return in the coming weeks.

“There’s still a whole lot of winter left,” Mastrantoni said.

This week alone, repairs have been completed on lines on Oakland Avenue, Denise Drive and Colliers Way, with crews also working on a break along Penco Road.

Assistant Director Jasen Havens, though, explained not all of the line breaks are in Weirton’s distribution system, with problems also discovered within customer-owned service laterals and even in lines within houses and businesses. Those breaks are the responsibility of the property owner, Havens explained.

Mastrantoni has reported, even with the return of water provisions through the assistance of Cleveland-Cliffs and the water treatment plant producing at regular levels, supplies available remain at only about 30 percent of the system’s storage capacity.

Weirton remains under a mandatory water conservation order as a result, with the goal of reaching between 55 percent and 60 percent of storage capacity before it can be lifted.

“The conservation order is still very, very important,” Mastrantoni said. “The more we conserve, the faster we can get out of it.”

The water board has diverted employees from many of its operations toward locating and repairing breaks in its distribution system, with additional assistance from crews provided by James White Construction Co.

The board also thanked the West Virginia American Water staff, with Mastrantoni explaining their equipment can listen to the sounds of water running through the lines, and then, using computer programming, help to chart the potential locations of line breaks.

Mastrantoni reiterated the possibility of additional line breaks in the coming weeks as a result of what he said meteorologists have referred to as “historically” cold weather, pointing to several days where high temperatures were in single digits.

“When you get that kind of cold … you’re going to have distribution systems that are going to break,” Mastrantoni said.

The water board instituted its mandatory conservation order on Dec. 18, with a city-wide boil order issued Dec. 27 after a break in a 12-inch water line on Walnut Street. Widespread boil orders were all lifted initially on Jan. 3, although another boil order for Weirton Heights was in place from Jan. 23 until Feb. 6.