Thousands of Van Buren County residents getting water back after several days of major water leaks for the Fall Creek Falls Utility District.
Fall Creak Falls Utility District Board President Kenny Simmons said Sunday the utility district discovered three major water leaks. One was in a creek and two were found in a waterline coming to the main pumping station. Simmons said the three leaks required major fixes.
“We had to repair them before we could ever get water from our tanks into our pumping station,” Simmons said. “I mean it was like the first one was a feeder line that kind of drained us down and then the second and the third one was major leaks. we couldn’t get water to our pumping station to pump it out.”
Simmons said the system is building back up reserves. As of Tuesday afternoon, the utility district has restored water to about 80-85 percent of customers across Van Buren and Bledsoe County. Simmons said currently the utility district is working to restore water in the Brockdell area.
“Hopefully by later today or tonight we should be getting customers in that effected area that should be having water,” Simmons said. “So then we should be back up to I’m gonna say 90 percent to 95 percent of our customers.”
Simmons said he is not sure what exactly cause the leaks but believes he may know what caused the leaks.
“You know we had an earthquake and all of our lines are on solid rock up here,” Simmons said. “I’m not saying all of them are but the lines that we repaired are all on solid rock and when those lines were put in back in the 60s and 70s, they didn’t bed the lines, they just layed them in there on the solid rock and covered them back up.”
Simmons said what the utility district needs from customers is just some patience as they crews continue to restore water.
Simmons said several entities and utility districts from nearby counties assisted in helping find and repair the leaks. Simmons said that extra assistance was a big help as Fall Creek Falls Utility District is a small utility company.
