Boynton officials stymied by water loss

by D. E., originally posted on January 20. 2017

 

Boynton officials “suspect foul play” may have caused the loss of water service this week to a substantial number of the town’s customers before it was restored Thursday.

Travis Wilson, the town’s water operator, said the distribution system lost pressure Sunday, when he discovered the water tower was empty. Wilson said he began troubleshooting the system in an effort to find what he and Mayor Kay Lang initially described as “a major leak.”

Wilson estimated the town’s water distribution system was losing water at a rate of 97 gallons of water a minute — nearly 140,000 gallons a day — before the main valve was closed. Wilson, with help from the Oklahoma Rural Water Association and the town of Haskell, spent much of the week trying to locate a phantom leak.

 “We have been trying to find this major leak all week, and finally, we isolated it today where it should have been within nine-tenths of a mile area of where it should have been,” Wilson said, describing how workers used valves to isolate segments of the distribution system and gauge flow rates. “We put in a shut-off valve, they got installed, and when we opened it all of a sudden the leak miraculously healed itself.”

There was some speculation that water was unable to reach the water tower due to an “air lock,” which might have been released when the line was cut to install the new valve. Wilson, however, said an air lock might prevent water from reaching the tower would not explain the significant loss of water that drained it.

“The only thing I can deduce from that is somebody put in an illegal tap, or they have some way to get water they are not supposed to be getting,” said Wilson, who expects a report will be filed with the Muskogee County Sheriff’s Office. “Whoever did this had to know we were out of water — I have lost a lot of sleep over this issue and I’m not a happy camper right now.”

 Lang issued on Wednesday a precautionary boil advisory for the town’s water customers due to contaminants that might be introduced to the system during the installation of valves. The Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality will determine when that advisory will be lifted.

Erin Hatfield, an ODEQ spokeswoman, said the agency was providing technical assistance to the town as it worked to resolve its water issues and would continue to track the situation. Before service was restored Thursday afternoon, Hatfield said town officials appeared “to be working hard to locate and repair the source of the water leak.”

Boynton water customers are urged to boil for one minute all water that will be consumed or used for cooking or hygienic purposes.

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