HCWA responding to high number of customer calls about leaks
The perfect storm, literally and figuratively, has created a strain on the water production, distribution, and storage capacity of the Henry County Water Authority (HCWA) the past few days.
With this Christmas weekend featuring extreme freezing temperatures, which followed several days of rainstorms last week, that damaging combination has created significant customer water loss from pipe bursts and water line leaks throughout the community, exacerbated by many residents being out of town and businesses being closed during the holiday. Thus, some HCWA residential and large commercial customers may have experienced continual water loss due to leaks occurring – and water running – for consecutive days.
As a result, the HCWA has experienced peak demands – because of this rare instance of customer water loss/leaks rather than willful water use – that are exceedingly worse than even the highest volume days in the middle of summer, when customers are watering lawns and enjoying the outdoors. And the HCWA is not alone in its race to keep the water flowing, as correspondence with neighboring cities and counties has fielded reports of similar conditions among other local water systems and water utilities as well.
HCWA crews are on call 24/7 and have been working overtime since Christmas Eve (Saturday) checking and inspecting water mains and lines within its distribution system to identify any potential leaks, as well as responding to the high number of customer calls for help to turn the water off at their respective properties.
Authority officials are asking citizens to report any instances of water leaks visible along roadways or right of ways, from fire hydrants or any other points of the HCWA distribution system.
“We were reaching a point where we were losing more water than we could produce and distribute, which speaks to the urgency of the system’s condition due to the combination of extreme weather events and subsequent customer leaks,” says Tony Carnell, HCWA General Manager. “We suspect that the number of customers impacted by water leaks and water loss is significant, as we have fielded calls from all over the county and from neighboring jurisdictions.”
Carnell notes that the HCWA employs water line maintenance crews, while budgeting for emergency labor contractors, for these very instances. But there are limits to what the Authority can do when water loss comes from the customer side of the meter. While frozen water lines, leaks and breaks are not uncommon for either the utility or its customers, this strain on the system has been due to the water loss occurring during a holiday weekend, when customers are away from their properties, thus delaying their awareness of a problem, says Carnell.
“We have alarms through our new AMI water meter technology that alert us when a customer is experiencing a spike in usage, which gives us an indication there may be a leak, so we can notify them. In addition, we were seeing an unusual drop in our storage tank levels from data coming in from our SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), which monitors all points of our system,” adds Carnell.
Currently, the HCWA is continuing its search for any potential leaks within its system – with a recent update from the field showing only one minor leak, which has been repaired – while responding to customer requests for assistance with turning off their water. Authority officials are asking customers to continue to be on the lookout for potential leaks, while fixing any leaks or water loss they may be experiencing at their property. Conditions (and leaks) could continue with warmer temperatures in the forecast, as water lines continue to thaw further.
The Authority offers winterization tips for its customers, which are available on its website at www.hcwa.com; however, temperatures must be above freezing, and pipes must be completely thawed, before most of these preventative measures can be taken.
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Media Contact: Chris Wood, Ph.D.
P: 770-757-1681
E: chris@jwapr.com or john.wood@gcsu.edu