626,000 gallons of water down the drain

The problem was caused by a water line break inside the clear well located at the water plant east of town around 8 or 9 a.m. on Saturday morning, according to City Administrator Zac Johnson.

“It drained the system completely,” he said. “And there was no way to shut it off.”

The clear well is a huge cement tank in the ground that holds 300,000 gallons of water. After the water is treated it is put in the clear well and from there goes to the water towers. When the line broke, the water in the towers backed up into the clear well. Mr. Johnson said he thought the water towers were close to full since it happened early in the morning. The old water tower holds 75,000 gallons and the new water tower 250,000 gallons. The system is interconnected.

A diving crew was summoned since no one could tell exactly how the pipe was broken. They arrived around 3 p.m. and checked the 8-inch pipe at the bottom of the clear well. A simple breach in the pipe might have been repaired by divers, but the divers discovered that the pipe had completely separated.

The clear well had to be emptied to allow for repairs. At one point backflow pressure from water draining from storage towers raised the heavy concrete lid off the clear well by almost two feet, prompting worries about structural damage. The lid eventually settled back down in proper position, but concerns remain about structural damage. Concrete support columns are not all perpendicularly aligned, and at least one column shows damage. A structural damage assessment is being scheduled.

Mr. Johnson said he wasn’t sure what caused the pipe, a part of the system built in the 1970s, to separate. “It wasn’t like it was an old line that had corroded. Where two pieces hooked together, it just came apart.”

Daily maintenance checks on the water system were performed earlier Saturday as usual. Johnson says the pipe’s failure was not something that could have been discovered by any routine check of the pipes. “This was a freak thing that happened,” he said.

About 12 midnight Saturday, the pipe was repaired and the city started producing water again. The city is now trying to refill the water towers and hope to restore normal water service to everyone, including rural customers, by this weekend.
“The big issue now is for people to conserve as much as possible until we get off this boil order,” Mr. Johnson said. He thought the boil order might last another week or possibly two.

People are being asked to restrict the amount of water used. That will help to shorten the time it takes to fill the towers. Fire protection is at some risk until the city’s storage towers return to normal levels. Until the towers are full and tests have been completed, a boil order has been advised.

All of the systems through the City of Gallatin were affected, as well as part of Public Water Supply District #2 (this water district also gets part of their water from Breckenridge). People on the north side of the Grand River are on Harrison County’s water service and were not affected; Water District #1 servicing the Lake Viking community also was not affected.

Things not yet normal here…

It may seem that municipal water service is back to normal, but think again. Water storage probably won’t return to normal levels until this weekend. The city will also need to flush out all fire hydrants before this ordeal is entirely over.
State health authorities issued a boil order which remains in effect for the City of Gallatin. You are advised to boil water vigorously for three minutes prior to use. Use only boiled water for drinking, diluting fruit juices, and all other food preparation. To help restore normal water storage supply, residents should try to take short showers and observe restricted use in the following ways: water for yards or gardens; swimming pools (refilling); washing cars; watering livestock; and other non-emergency uses.