By Lindy J. Gwinn. Mountain Valley News staff
More than 200 water users from Northridge Subdivision and other residents that are users on the Cedaredge water system came home from work on Thursday and found they had no water.
Messages on their phones, after a reverse 911 call, informed users that there had been a major break in the main transmission water line that runs down from treatment plant.
The reverse 911 calls went out at about 12:30 on Thursday, after Town Administrator Katie Sickles initiated the emergency system through the county dispatch. The message indicated that there may be no water for the users north of the tanks for up to 72 hours.
According to Sickles, a main juncture bell in the line ruptured and she needed to immediately put the town residents on water restriction.
The water users in town and south of Sage Road were still getting water due to the amount of water in the storage tanks. Outside watering was prohibited from the time the reverse 911 call went out until Saturday afternoon until further notice.
The water line was repaired by late Thursday night, and water service was restored.
“Although the line was repaired and the people in Northridge had water again, we continued to restrict water use outside until Saturday afternoon,” said Sickles.
“It takes time for the turbidity in the water to settle down after a break like that to a major structure. People will continue to see cloudy water for a day or two. The employees at the public works department flushed the lines at the fire hydrants and that will help clear the lines. If people see cloudy water after Saturday, they may want to turn on the outside water to clear the lines in the house," she said.
“I just hope they get that line fixed for the folks up north. I don’t mind putting my outside watering on hold for a few days, but I sure feel sorry for the people that don’t have any at all, said Marilyn Smith who lives on the south end of Cedaredge.
At a time when the town trustees are constantly talking about keeping expenditures under control, cost estimates are not yet in for the repairs to the water line break.
“We won’t have the cost of the repairs until later this week, and we are going to be looking at what may have caused this incident and see what we need to do to keep these kinds of things from happening,” said Sickles.
As of press time, no cause had been determined.
