Water crews faced delays, hurdles after October’s water main break - WWNY

Water crews faced delays, hurdles after October’s water main break

WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) - Details from the repair of the Huntington Street water main break show us more than one hurdle stood in the way last month for the Watertown Water Department.

Water department workers faced 3 major challenges when dealing with the October water main break that put the city into a state emergency.

First, crews couldn’t dig to find the leak for hours.

“If there’s a problem locating for gas or for electric, it’s not unusual for us to have to wait 5 to 10 hours,” said Joshua Satchwell, supervisor, Water Distribution System Maintenance.

But they waited 11 hours in this case. Crews were waiting for the okay from National Grid because of major electrical and gas lines near the water break.

City crews used tools to turn off 25 valves stopping the water flow. The process took 12 hours as some of the valves required up to 270 turns to close the valves.

“Given the fact that they’re transmission mains, they’re larger and they’re spread out. So it’s not like a light switch,” said Satchwell.

Another concern was finding where the fix needed to be done in the first place. Maps weren’t the best since some were drawn up a century ago.

“We’re also doing some geo-location for valves because apparently the old documents we had were drawn instead of geo-located,” said Vicky Murphy, superintendent, Watertown Water Department.

On Wednesday night as the water department answered questions at a special city council meeting, lawmakers commended crews for the work they did to get the water back on.

Copyright 2023 WWNY. All rights reserved.