GALVESTON — A water line leak that threatened Galveston's water supply was repaired early today and water was expected to be flowing again early Friday, a Galveston spokeswoman said.

Workers from Hanson Pressure Pipe, makers of the 42-inch steel pipe covered inside and out with reinforced concrete, completed repairs at 3 a.m., , spokeswoman Alicia Cahill said.

Galveston will continue receiving water from Houston, League City and emergency wells on the mainland through an aging, smaller line until the repaired line is checked for harmful bacteria, a process that usually takes 24 hours, Cahill said.

She said full use of the line will be delayed until a period of low usage. If the testing shows no bacteria, the line could be reopened as early as 2 a.m. Friday, she said.

The unused line, some parts of which are 100 years old, was pressed into use after a small leak in the main line suddenly became catastrophic Friday and threatened to exhaust the city's water reserves.

The water loss forced the city to declare a stage 5 drought alert banning the watering of lawns, washing cars or filling pools. Cahill said the stage 5 alert would be lowered to a stage 1 or stage 2 Friday, largely replacing mandatory water restrictions with voluntary measures.

The amount of water routed through the aging pipeline is several million gallons per day less than the city normally uses this time of year. City officials hope to slightly increase the flow after two of the city's six emergency wells on the mainland repaired today, Cahill said.

harvey.rice@chron.com