DUNBAR, W.Va. — Repairs were completed Friday morning on a second leak in West Virginia American Water Company’s 36 inch main transmission line near Dunbar.
“We had a couple of storms we had to deal with, but the repair is fixed and the site is backfilled,” said Company Spokesperson Laura Jordan. “Crews worked to immediately open up valves on river crossings to supply water back to this side of the river.”
Crews thought they had adequately repaired a blow-out of the line which occurred Tuesday evening. However, only hours after completing the repairs a new leak appeared. The site had to be excavated a second time in as many days. The second leak happened in an adapter connecting the old line to the new pipe. Many wondered why the pipe wasn’t tested before it was covered.
“That’s a common misconception,” Jordan said.”We actually have to back fill. We need the pressure and weight of earth and gravel on top of the main before we can put pressure on it. You can imagine a 36 inch main, fully exposed, with a whole wall of water rushing into it can lead to very bad things.”
Residents along the line started to see their water service slowly coming back on line throughout the day. The last will be those near the end of the lines in the higher elevations of Buffalo and Culloden. Jordan noted they were able to keep about 75 percent of their Culloden customers in service by reversing the flow and drawing water from their Huntington treatment plant. However, since Huntington is a lower gradient than Charleston they were unable to make the switch work for those on the hills in the area.
As the lines begin to recharge, a number of fire hydrants along the line are open. Residents should not be alarmed.
“That’s a very important part of the process,” said Jordan. “We actually have to have somewhere for the air to go. So we’re using fire hydrants as well as pressure valves at pumping stations to bleed the air out of the lines.”
A boil water advisory will remain in effect for all who experienced an outage or low pressure during the event. Health Department regulations require the boil advisory until lab tests confirm the water is free of contaminants and the tests cannot happen until the system is fully pressurized.
“We’ll get that process started as soon as it’s pressurized,”Jordan said.”Our water quality team already has all of the water collection sites identified.”
The testing process takes 24 hours.