By BECKY KISER
Hays Post

Hays city employees were called out for another water leak early Thursday morning, this time just south of the 22nd and Vine Streets intersection.

Water Resources Director Jeff Crispin attributes the recent spate of water line leaks to a rainy summer and the remediation project of the water tower near Sternberg Museum, 3000 Sternberg Drive.

“The ground shifts quite a bit with the rain that we’ve had. It also happens when there’s been no rain,” Crispin explained to city commissioners Thursday night.

The other factor is the empty water tower south of Interstate 70.

“Not only is that a source of water for us but it also helps regulate pressure within the system so you do have situations where there are sometimes leaks. That’s just part of our infrastructure that we deal with. Without that tower some of the pressures are difficult,” said Crispin.

Lead remediation and repainting of the one-million gallon tower began July 15 and was expected to be completed within six weeks.

Crispin told commissioners he hopes the large water tower will be back in service next week.

Crispin and the commissioners praised crews for responding quickly to leaks. “I’ve actually had citizens comment how quickly we seem to be getting that done,” said Sandy Jacobs.

“We get on scene and you have to call in locates to get people out before you can start digging, so our first response is to try to stop the from slowing.” Crispin said. “That also takes people at the water plant to slow things down and make sure we provide water for our citizens.”

The water line repair sites are messy and muddy, he added.

“Public Works comes behind us and helps us, but it’s been taking some time to get back and clean up those leaks,” Crispin said. “Sometimes we’ve been going from one leak to another and Public Works has other projects they have to work on, so we’re getting to those as quick as we can.”

According to Crispin, an average water leak takes four hours to repair.