After a main waterline break left thousands of local residents in Bonnyville without water for over 17 hours late last month, Mayor Gene Sobolewski provided an update on the state of the town's waterline last week.
One of the town's main water transmission lines, located roughly 100 yards away from the municipality's public works shop on the south side of 54 Avenue, malfunctioned at around 4 p.m. Feb. 22, leaving residents in limbo, without access to running water.
Speaking to the Nouvelle last week, Sobolewski said the Town's public works department was working around the clock on a permanent fix for the issue.
“Immediate repairs to the main waterline that malfunctioned commenced (last week). We've got everything all planned out to ensure we have all the materials and resources we need to tackle the issue head on,” Sobolewski said. “We're going to be taking a proactive approach to the issue this time rather than the reactive approach we (took) when the line first went down.”
According to Sobolewski, the problem stemmed from a leaking hydrant lead. Although he admitted this was a “common thing”, several other extenuating circumstances came into play, causing this to become a “significant issue” for the town.
“The issue itself boiled down to something as common as a leaking hydrant lead,” Sobolewski said. “The lead had been leaking for a while and things had progressively gotten worse right up until the point we received a call from the water treatment plant saying they were losing thousands of litres of water a minute.”
He added, “So we went out there on Saturday to fix it and at that time we were faced with a particular problem where we could not isolate anything. Usually for an issue like this, you just have to turn a couple of valves to stop water flowing through that area of pipe and you can address the issue, but two of the valves we needed to turn were frozen because of the cold weather and we didn't have access to a steamer, so we were faced with a pretty serious issue.”
It was then that Sobolewski said public works put in the call to turn the town's water off, while the crew worked on excavating the area to “patch-up” the pipe in anticipation for a full repair once the warmer weather returned.
Work continued well into the night, with the “buttoning-up” process completed, and water restored to the town by 8 a.m. Sunday.
That fix however lasted less than 24 hours as the waterline blew once again early Monday morning, leading to the town turning off the water while the crew went about fixing the issue once again. Sobolewski said the second time was a “much easier” fixing process, since the town was able to locate and use two steamers to isolate the valves.
The town decided since the line had malfunctioned twice in the space of 24 hours, it would be best to go about fixing the issue immediately, rather than waiting for cooperative weather. Work continued throughout the week to repair the line.
After visiting the scene and helping the town's crew at 3 a.m. Sunday, Sobolewski said those carrying out the repairs had a “real tough time” thanks in part to the cold weather, the make-up of the pipe itself, and all the other main utility lines in close proximity to the waterline.
“There were various factors that made this a difficult job – the minus 35 degree weather didn't help much and there with lots of other major utility cables in close proximity to the waterline, so we had to be very careful when carrying out the work – and then there's the pipe itself,” Sobolewski said. “Our main feed line is made up of old asbestos cement, so it is very, very brittle and just nasty stuff to work with.”
He added, “When you look at the makeup of asbestos cement piping, it's quite conceivable that we repair something and all of a sudden we're chasing after it again, simply because the pipe is so brittle. It can move just the tiniest bit and you have another leak on your hands.”
Currently, the town is working to repair four other small leaks in the system.
Sobolewski went on record to commend all the hard-working staff members that assisted with both the repairs and public awareness, reserving special praise for Town CAO Mark Power who joined Sobolewski at the site of the leak at 3 a.m. Sunday morning, and the extra hours put in by several staff members at the town office to ensure local residents calling in about the issue remained in the know.
He also extended his thanks to 11 contractors in the region that stepped up to help the town deal with the issue. Sobolewski also said the Bonnyville Regional Fire Authority were “vital” for getting the system back up and running. The Neighbourhood Inn and local businessman Sal Naim came in for special praise too after providing breakfast free of charge to workers out on the site.
Finally, Sobolewski thanked the public for their patience and understanding during what was a difficult situation.
“I think we ought to commend the community for their attitude throughout the entire (ordeal),” Sobolewski said. “They were very cooperative and patient and seemed to understand what was going on. The majority seemed to be happy and appreciative of everyone that helped out.”
