Monday’s water leak ‘nearly drained’ one Hays water tower

Some city workers spent much of their July 4th holiday repairing a major water leak near 10th and Milner.

By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

One Hays resident said he noticed Monday morning “the water pressure was low” when he took a shower.

The reason? There was a major water leak at 10th and Milner, which a city water department worker described as the biggest leak he’d seen in his 15 years on the job.

“The city water tower near the Sternberg Museum of Natural History was nearly drained, with millions of gallons of water lost,” according to Hays Assistant City Manager Jacob Wood. He said employees were still calculating the total amount of water loss as of mid-morning Tuesday.

Early morning on July 4, workers at the city water plant noticed a dramatic and fast drop in the water level of the distribution system — about 5,000 gallons a minute. An alert was sent at 6:27 a.m. through the city’s Nixle notice system from Utilities Division Asst. Director Jeff Crispin to residents that workers were trying to find the leak and asking residents to curb water usage.

It took a while to find the leak.

“Usually, when you have a leak that size, it’s pretty easy to spot,” said Wood, “and people will call in telling us where it’s at. There’s water running along the curb and in the street.”

Monday’s leak caused the loss of millions of gallons of water from the Hays water tower near Sternberg Museum.

This time, however, the leak was less visible. It was in a secluded area near 10th and Milner, between the back of an APAC equipment lot and the railroad tracks.

“It was not evident right off the bat where the leak was,” Wood explained, “and it took several hours to actually find and locate.”

It was also a big leak.

“It was in a 12-inch main (line). The split was on the underside of the pipe and it was about 6 feet long — a pretty large water leak.”

Another Nixle alert was sent when the leak was found and isolated, advising residents water was shut down from Ninth to 11th streets between Vine and Pine streets, and asking residents to continue conserving water.

Nearly 12 hours passed between the time the public was first notified of the leak and then notified it had been repaired.

A final Nixle alert was sent at 6:17 p.m. alerting residents the utilities crew had fixed the leak and full water service was being restored. The city asked residents to continue conserving water through Tuesday morning.

Water still standing Tuesday morning between APAC and the railroad tracks

“During that entire time, we were losing quite a bit of water, and it takes time to build the system back up,” Wood said. By 10 a.m. Tuesday, “there should not have been any issues with water pressure or volume in the city’s two water towers.”

The pipe that ruptured was old.

“I don’t know when it was put in. It had to be quite some time ago because, in that area, there’s been stuff built up and around it and typically that wouldn’t happen. If the city put in a new water line, we wouldn’t allow you to build that close to it,” he said.

Workers were surprised there wasn’t much build-up or corrosion inside the pipeline.

“Typically over time, even though the line may be 12 inches (in diameter), there’ll be build-up and there really wasn’t very much,” Wood said.

“It’s just one of those things that happens with water lines,” Wood said, “a couple of holes that split together. It’d probably been leaking for quite some time.

“There are water lines leaking all over the city of Hays that we don’t know about, just not big or dramatic enough to impact or cause a problem with the distribution system.”

Wood said there are employees 24 hours a day at the city water treatment plant, 1200 Vine, to monitor the water distribution system. There is also a system with alarms and alerts that will send out messages if something is wrong.