Trinity Standard - Local News
Stories Added - January 2010
Copyright 2008 - Polk County Publishing Company |
Winter freeze plays havoc with local water
Trinity Standard - January 2010
TRINITY – A winter freeze which swept through East Texas beginning last week disrupted water service and forced a temporary shutdown of the Trinity River Authority’s Trinity County Regional Water Supply System.
“It’s been an interesting few days, to say the least,” Trinity City Manager Phil Patchett said Tuesday. “Things are starting to improve as the weather warms up but we are still finding leaks.”
Patchett said the problems have forced the city to issue a “Boil Water Notice” advising all areas residents to boil all water that will be used for drinking, cooking or ice making.
The city manager said the notice was issued in compliance with state regulations because of the extremely low water pressure in the city water lines.
“We are working to get everything back in place and the water pressure restored,” he said, adding he hopes to be able to life the boil notice by the end of this week if not sooner.
As the cold snap hit East Texas last week, it plunged temperatures down to 16 degrees. The cold winter air never climbed above freezing for as much as 40 hours in some areas.
“When your have a hard freeze for two or three hours, that is one thing, but one lasting 36 to 40 hours is quite another. We’re just not set up in East Texas for that kind of weather,” he said.
Patchett said one of the first problems the weather created came from homeowners who left their water dripping over night in order to keep their lines from freezing.
“When someone does that, they can use up to 100 gallons of water and when you multiply that by 1,500 customers, that 150,000 gallons of water,” he said.
Then, as the weather warmed during the day, water lines that did freeze thawed and began leaking throughout the area, causing another drain on the area’s water systems.
Patchett said all of these problems created lower than normal water pressure.
The major problem came Monday morning about 9 a.m. when the TRA regional system literally began running out of water and had to shut down temporarily.
The system provides water to the cities of Trinity and Groveton and most of the rural water systems including Trinity Rural Water and Glendale Water Supply Co.
Patchett said that as the TRA storage tanks began to refill, they began supplying each of their customers – beginning with the farthest away – with maximum water for about an hour to an hour and a half.
“They started with Groveton and then worked their way back to Trinity,” Patchett said. “This gave all of the systems a chance to refill their storage tanks and recover.”
Patchett said Trinity’s turn came shortly after 5 p.m. Monday. The TRA water allowed the city to increase pressure in the lines at that time.
After providing each of its water customers with an emergency boost, Patchett said TRA was able to cut back and began supplying all of the water companies with a steady flow.
“We’re now back to getting 200 gallons per minute,” he said, adding that level was close to the normal flow for this time of year.
Compounding the problem for Trinity water customers was the scheduled maintenance underway at the city’s water well storage tank located south of the city.
That large ground storage tank had been shut down and drained prior to the arrival of the winter storm in order to perform needed maintenance.
Without the use of that tank, the city was unable to receive much water from its wells during the crisis period meaning that it was almost totally dependant on the TRA water.
Patchett said the work had been long scheduled for this time of year because of the normally low demand for water.
“We can’t do this kind of work in the summer when water demand is high,” he said, adding that no one could have predicted such low sustained temperatures that the area has seen since Friday.
Without TRA’s water during the day Monday, some areas of the city had no water at all while others had very little.
“I was most concerned about getting water to the north side of the city because that’s where the hospital is located,” Patchett said. “Once the TRA began supplying us again, we were able to take care of that problem.”
On Tuesday, Patchett said city work crews were busy finding and repairing leaks in the city’s water mains.
Major problems were found in both the Trinity Cove and Pinecrest Road areas, forcing the city to shut down water service in those areas for a time Tuesday while repairs were made.
“We’re asking everyone to conserve water when ever possible. With all of the leaks in the system, we cannot spare a drop right now,” he said.
Patchett said city workers also are looking for water leaks on private lines and as they find them, they are turning off the water at the meters until the homeowners can have them repaired.
Leaks in the city-owned distributions lines are being addressed as quickly as city crews can get to them, Patchett added.
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