About 40 households and businesses in West Berkeley have been without water since Friday morning after a water main break near Grant Street and Bancroft Way.

Residents alerted East Bay Municipal Utility District about the break, first reported by Berkeleyside, about 10:45 a.m. and the water was shut down about 30 minutes later, according to EBMUD spokesperson Abby Figueroa.

The leak was running for at least 45 minutes, Figueroa said.

As of 4 p.m., part of Grant Street was still closed off as EBMUD crews worked to repair the break in the 12-inch cast iron pipe by Friday evening.

Breaks in pipes around Berkeley, a seismically active area, are common, Figueroa said, especially with older pipes.

“Pipes break all the time,” she said. “Berkeley has a lot of EBMUD’s older pipes. This is not unusual.”