After a 35-foot geyser erupted over the weekend from a water main break in De Soto, city employees had to build a road to reach the break before repairs could be completed, officials report.
About 200 homes in the northeastern part of the city were without water from about 3 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. Sunday (July 24) during the repairs, said public works director Kevin Warden.
“We got a call about 4 p.m. Saturday of the water main break along Joachim Stream (off East Kelly Street),” Warden said. “A neighbor heard and said, ‘Something’s not right.’ We had to actually build a road to get from the embankment and get to the main break.”
He said the resulting geyser was quite the sight.
“Water was blowing out of the ground,” Warden said. “It was running 135 pounds of pressure and water shot up 35 feet.”
He said the customers affected did not lose water until employees finally reached the water main break. He said his employees labored intensively in blistering heat to fix the problem.
“Saturday night, we brought in rock to build the road,” Warden said. “We stopped at 3 a.m. Sunday. We started working on the road in the morning. We shut down the main at 3 p.m. Sunday – people had water until then.”
As of today (July 26), a boil water warning for those in the affected area was still in place, Warden said.
“It’s a precautionary boil water order (for water to be consumed),” he said. “To take showers, it’s fine (not to boil it). The boil water order will be in place until the city notifies people otherwise.”
Warden said he can only estimate how much water the system lost until repairs were finished.
“We’re talking, probably, 300,000 to 400,000 gallons,” he said. “We know it had to have been leaking during the week before the water main break was seen.”
He said the city’s overall water supply was never threatened during the water loss.
“We were fine,” Warden said. “We have a million-gallon reserve.”
He said city officials knew the water pipes in the area where the break occurred were old, but did not know how old until employees made their way to the water main break.
“Our maps of the water pipes only go back to 1930,” Warden said. “The water main has a date on it of 1905.”
Warden commended his staff members for their efforts to repair the water main break.
“With what the weather was Sunday and with working through the night before, they did a fantastic job,” he said.
He said the rock road leading to the water main will remain.
“The road is on city right-of-way,” Warden said. “It will stay in case we need to get down there again.”