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The Onondaga County Water Authority (OCWA) has announced that repairs to the major water main break in Cicero could cost between $7 and $9 million. The break, which occurred in December 2025, affected water service for approximately 27,000 customers across several Central New York communities for weeks.
The extensive repair project, which began in late December, required residents in DeWitt, Manlius, Pompey, Lenox, Lincoln, and Sullivan to conserve water. This included the villages of Canastota, Chittenango, East Syracuse, Fayetteville, Manlius, and Minoa.
Jeff Brown, OCWA's executive director, previously indicated that the agency's $5 million reserve fund was expected to cover the expenses, though the final cost has exceeded initial projections. During the crisis, Brown described the situation as "relatively unusual" but manageable thanks to community cooperation.
The water conservation mandate has now been lifted after OCWA completed repairs to the transmission main. According to Syracuse.com, the Eastern Reservoir serving the affected communities has been refilled to normal levels, allowing customers to return to regular water use.
Throughout the crisis, OCWA had to reroute water from other systems, drawing from as far away as Oneida to maintain service. Volunteers distributed over 3,400 cases of bottled water from Fayetteville-Manlius High School to affected residents.
Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon praised residents for reducing water consumption from a typical 5 million gallons per day to 3.5 million gallons, saying "What could have been a crisis now looks like a managed process."
OCWA has been dealing with leaks in the same area since summer 2025. A valve off the main transmission line was repaired in August, followed by a leak discovered in the main pipe in November about 30 feet from the earlier repair. Brown previously stated that the two issues were unrelated.
In response to the costly repairs, OCWA is now considering the installation of new break-detection systems to prevent similar problems in the future. Regular updates on the repair progress were provided to the public throughout the crisis, with the final repairs completed in mid-January 2026.