The town of Elkton's public works crew is finishing repairs to failed infrastructure that left local residents without running water for part of the weekend. WMRA's Randi B. Hagi reports.
[sound of work trucks, birds singing]
Nearly all of Elkton's approximately 3,000 residents lost water on Friday afternoon when a pump failed in one of the town's two wells.
Mayor Josh Gooden said public works employees replaced that pump, but it failed and had to be replaced with a second new pump. However, the hydrologic saga didn't end there. In the wee hours of Saturday morning, workers fixed electrical issues related to the new pump, then had to bring in a generator when the system's main breaker failed. But the tanks still weren't filling up.
JOSH GOODEN: One of our crew members … noticed that there was a water line that had basically fallen off from underneath the bridge. … The bracket that held the pipe gave way, and the entire section of pipe was just laying on an island in the middle of the Shenandoah River. … So all the water was draining to this area, regardless of being pumped out of the wells.
They ran a five-inch, yellow hose between fire hydrants on either end of the Old Spotswood Trail bridge to circumvent the break, and provide water to the west side of town. On Wednesday, construction was underway to replace the permanent waterline, which should be operational by Thursday morning.
After water service resumed, some local residents commented on social media that it looked cloudy coming out of the taps.
GOODEN: We would just ask them to run an outside faucet to drain some of that cloudiness out of their water and then hopefully it should resolve. … At my home, there was a lot of air in the water, so it just was cloudy for a little bit and then came back to normal.
Gooden said he doesn't yet know the total cost of the repairs. He thanked the town's public works crew, Rockingham County Fire and Rescue, the Virginia Department of Transportation, and the volunteers who stepped up to get things flowing again.
