Water Everywhere But Where We Want It!

Jim's timing is impecible! He left for Florida about noon on Tuesday to take care of some business there. Tuesday night I found water on top of the ground where our water main runs.

Wednesday morning two guys started digging to find the leak. As they dug deeper, the hole was filling with water, so they had to shut off the community at the main meter.

We thought it would be an easy fix. Were we ever wrong! Someone planted pine trees above one section of water lines years ago. One of these trees had roots that had warped the line and actually snapped it. The line had actually broken DIRECTLY under this tree.

Late Wednesday we had water....for a short time. Re-pressurizing the line caused another break. The huge hole that had been dug was full of water and it was running all over - it was getting cold, but not quite cold enough for skating. Because of the time change last weekend it was also DARK. We had to turn the water back off and the entire park was waterless for the whole night.

Thursday morning took me to Lowe's to buy a sump pump to empty the hole. It was completely full of water and would have taken a huge amount of time to bail it out. I just wanted water back to all the houses. It worked beautifully. The second line that broke was capped, since it was a feeder line to an empty lot. (Jim will get the lot replumbed when he returns.)

Most of our residents took this situation in stride. A few did not. (It is funny that the only ones who complained were those who had not yet paid November lot rent OR those who owed large sums from the prior ownership. Not one of the tenants we already considered our better ones complained.) One resident called the President of the City Commission, who called me about an hour after the water was back on and functioning properly. When I told him the water was fixed and on, he apologized for bothering me with his phone call!

The offending tree will die because so many of the roots were chopped away to get at the line. We knew these trees would eventually become a problem, and it was on our list of things to do....have them cut down. They also run along the electric lines and the electric company is doing line maintenance in this area in 2008. We probably can't wait for that and risk more water line breakage. They have definitely increased in priority!

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