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Fridays...

Jeff Dale, MRWA Technical Advisor
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We all look forward to Fridays, the weekend is finally here and plans are made. When you’re a water
and wastewater operations specialist, for some reason Fridays can be a curse also. I have been in this
field since 1986 and have a lot of Friday stories.
I’m going to share a Friday story from the city of Wood Lake. Al Chrisman is the lone soldier responsible
for all aspects of the system. Al had a water main break. You guessed it; on a Friday. The water leak
was on the main about a block from the water tower with no isolation valves between the tower
and the break. This required Al to shut the isolation valve located on the water tower. Al installed a
pressure relief valve to maintain pressure in the system not affected while repairing the leak.

The water main was repaired and when Al went back to open to water tower isolation valve it failed
closed. Now what? The water tower is full of water and the gate valve at the tower site needs to
be replaced. So, sit back and ask yourself, what would you do? It’s Friday at 4:00 p.m. and the air
temperature is 10°. Time is not on your side. If you wait until Monday the tower will ice up and the
wet riser will freeze up tight. What would you do?

Al contacted me with his dilemma and we brainstormed our options. I started to contact neighboring
systems to round up a tapping machine. It’s a fairly easy tool to use. It is hand operated and taps the
water main utilizing a tapping saddle and a 1-inch corporation stop.
This is where the awesome network of people we have all access to
really pays off. The neighboring city offered to bring all the necessary
equipment. We removed the insulation on the wet riser and tapped the
8-inch pipe. We tapped a ¾-inch hole and connected a 1-inch run of PVC
to a catch basin. The tower volume was 45,000 gallons and was empty
the next day. A contractor was also lined up Friday night
to dig and replace the failed gate valve. The gate
valve was replaced on Monday morning and the
system is back up and running.

Wood Lake is in the process of replacing
the water tower and the distribution
system with funding through USDA
Rural Development in two phases over
2021 and 2022.
To quote Al, “It can’t happen fast
enough!”

16 MRWA TODAY S SPRING 2021