Under pressure: City pipes don’t handle extra water flow

RANDOLPH – Joaquin Santos felt a flood of frustration when he had to deal with recent water issues on his property.

Around 10:30 a.m. on June 22, the Randolph man’s house located at 312 N. Cedar St. lost access to the city’s water system.

That changed about an hour and a half later when water became available to his residence again, but there was no pressure.

“I couldn’t do dishes, I couldn’t shower, no laundry,” Santos said. “It took me about 10 minutes to get half a sinkful of water.”

He was not the only community resident affected when city officials shut down the Randolph water tower on June 22 to have maintenance work done and government-mandated safety features installed.

The shutdown of the tower caused unforeseen water issues with the community’s existing pipeline and well system.

Tony Backer noted the water pressure at his house located at 408 E. Jackson St. was really high at about 6 p.m. June 22.

“To the point where our toilet (tank) floats wouldn’t shut off,” he said. “You had to go in and manually shut them because they had so much pressure.

“The shower head had good pressure,” he said. “I didn’t really think anything of it. I figured it had something to do with the maintenance they were doing.”

However, the next morning, Backer’s fiancée, Bailey Tinker, found a water leak in their residence’s basement after he had already left for his job as the manager of the West Randolph Farm Supply location.

Tinker called Backer around 8 a.m. to tell him they had a river running through their basement, which prompted him to come home shortly thereafter.

“The line that goes from the city water main to my house had blown apart or something underground, so it was seeping through my basement wall,” Backer said.

Randolph City Administrator/Clerk Ben Benton noted the water tower is meant to regulate the ebbs and flows of the water pressure in the community.

“Without that, we were relying solely on the water wells to produce the water,” he said.

Benton explained the city’s two water wells do not have variable frequency drives (VFD), which adjust how much water flow that a well pump handles per minute.

“Our well pumps – both of them – are either on or off,” he said. “They’re either sending water or they’re not.

“A VFD would allow you to change how much is being sent based on the demand from the city,” he said.

Benton noted when the community’s water tower is operating, it allows the city to maintain a consistent pressure rate in its pipeline system.

“With the water tower off, the well pump was pushing more water than what would be normally expected,” he said.

When the city shut down the water tower for work to be done on it, it had to be completely drained, which happened on June 22.

Benton mentioned the water wells – one is located at the north end of Randolph while the other is situated at the south end – were turned on when the water tower was shut down.

“We turn on the wells, and the wells are sending water through the pipes, replenishing the city,” he said.

Benton noted he and other city officials are guessing that during this replenishment, some of the city’s old water mains that were already weak were compromised further and caused them to burst.

“The city definitely got their money’s worth out of the pipe that was in the ground that ruptured,” he said.

Benton was not sure how old the water pipelines are in the community of nearly 880 people.

“I know one of the pipes they were looking at – there was a stamp down there and it said 1912,” he said, noting the pipelines that burst should have been replaced years ago.

Benton noted pipelines all over the city were leaking water on June 22. The first one was found on West Wayne Street near South Main Street.

A Randolph resident told city officials there was water flowing down the street, so public works employees shut off that particular water main, dug it up and patched it.

In addition, multiple property owners’ curb stops had failed. A curb stop is a water shutoff service valve located in the supply line between the water main and the building being provided with water.

“Per our city code, the city will tap the main and produce the supply of water at the corporation stop to the property owner, but everything beyond this point – this is all the property owner’s responsibility,” Benton said.

“At some point, with filling these water pipes full of water, some curb stops failed at different property addresses through town,” he said. “At one time, there were five different addresses that reported issues with water leaking just on Wednesday.”

More reports of water-leaking issues flooded into the city office the next day. Public works employees and vendors who were helping them dug up affected curb stops and replaced them in certain cases.

That process included “going to the curb stop, shutting the curb stop off and then determining if they’re still getting water in the house or not,” Benton said.

He noted he had heard of some residences having to deal with water leaking into their basements.

The other locations in the city where there were curb stop issues included:

-Two along the 400 block of East Hughson Street.

-One along the 400 block of East Jackson Street.

“We actually ended up digging in his (Santos’) yard to install a whole new line,” Benton said.

Santos was not happy his house did not have good water pressure for when he needed to use the bathroom, shower or do laundry, among other activities.

He went to neighbors’ houses to shower and have clothes washed and dried while the city worked on resolving its water issues.

“Everything was affected,” Santos said, noting that he and his two young children did not stay inside their house much with little water pressure. “I could’ve done dishes; it just would’ve taken a really long time.”

City water access was finally restored to Santos’ house in the early evening of June 24 after the water leak was fixed.

Backer noted the water that leaked into his house’s basement through a wall on June 22 was going down two floor drains.

“They were actually keeping ahead of it for the most part,” he said. “As far as water damage goes, it was really contained to about one room.”

The couches and TV located in the room affected by the water leak were undamaged, though the floor will need new carpet and the affected wall will need to be fixed.

“It was a finished rec room,” Backer said. “It didn’t hurt anything really in there. It’s just mainly the flooring has to come out. We’ve got to take the drywall down.”

He was happy his fiancée caught the water leak when she did and the city’s public works employees responded quickly to shut off the water.

In addition, he was pleased the water leak was fixed by Plumbing & Electric Services Inc. of Hartington and water to his house was turned back by the evening of June 23.

“Luckily, they were able to excavate where my valve comes off the water main,” Backer said.

He noted the company was able to cut the damaged pipeline off and remove it and then install a new one in three to four hours without tearing up his whole front yard on the south side of his house.

“I’ll just have to reseed it,” Backer said. “I’m not too worried about that.”

Benton mentioned there were two curb stop issues along the 400 block of West Wayne Street and one along the 500 block of West Broadway Street as well.

In addition, there were two water leaks near the intersection of East Wayne and South Nebraska streets that affected the Randolph Family Practice Clinic, three residences and K&B Campground.

Benton noted the city recommended people who were affected to use the bathrooms at Veterans Memorial Park and the showers at the Randolph Swimming Pool.

The city rented three backhoes to dig up water pipelines that needed to be swapped out for new ones throughout the community.

“Anything that’s broken we’ve been getting replaced,” Benton said, noting he drove to Sioux City, Iowa, and back early on June 24 to restock on curb stops and other necessary supplies for the city.

He noted the city’s public works employees – department supervisor John Dickes and Adriona Buchanan, Kurt Focken and Louis Herley – all were busy helping out with getting the community’s water issues fixed.

Part-time staff member Pat McFadden and summer seasonal employee A.J. Blickenstaff assisted with the situation as well.

Benton noted the public works employees worked long days June 22-24 as they tried to resolve all of Randolph’s water problems.

“They’ve definitely all been exemplary in putting in the hours,” he said. “They’ve remained safe, which is very, very much appreciated.”

City officials helped out businesses and residences affected by water problems by providing cases of bottled water and jugs of water from Jim’s Food Center for drinking and cooking while the issues were being fixed.