Undocumented Pipes Cause Pressure!

Dude! Don’t You Bathe?

Published on December 23, 2006 By SSG Geezer In Current Events

Undocumented Pipes Cause Pressure!
Dude! Don’t You Bathe?

For the last 7 days a lot of the folks here in San Angelo, Texas have suffered from a crisis caused by either no water pressure or very low, non-potable water pressure due to a supply pipe breaking, forcing the state to bring out the water tankers to ensure that the citizens of our fair city have drinkable water.

It seems that a large diameter pipe decided to give up the ghost last Friday evening causing about 60% of town to lose water pressure.
Since this pipe was 27 inches in diameter, and there is the need to replace over 500 feet of pipe due to it’s poor overall condition, there was a great deal of water lost to the break every day. Estimates put the total at 2 to 3 million gallons per day for the first 5 to 6 days. That may seem to be a fairly small amount when you compare it to the volume of water a major metropolitan area uses (or even the amount of sewage released daily into the Pacific from Tijuana, Mexico) but here in West Texas, it is fairly desert like with the exception of the reservoirs built on the Concho River.

The big issue is that when city workers tried to turn off the water at valves up-system from the break, the water didn’t really slow down! It seems that the plans and or blueprints for my fair city’s water system don’t have some connecting feeders on them. This means that the flow goes on, and the workers can’t get in and weld a new section of pipe in place. Here is a link from Thursdays San Angelo Paper.
See top link please.
The big problem is that a large number of restaurants in town are located in the affected area. This means that employees who depend on tips, and were hoping to get those increased holiday tips are out of luck due to the closure of their place of employment. That’s right, the week before Christmas and not even the $2.13 an hour that restaurant servers earn for at least 3 or 4 days. Here is their story.

I have been lucky in that my area of town did not lose water pressure but a large number of my Co-workers have had to visit friends with water or shower at the gym on base before work and after PT.

As of today, moist of the businesses affected are open again but 1000 customers are still without water. Here is the latest.

Link Link Link

Comments

Spc Nobody Special

on Dec 23, 2006

Welcome back, stranger

So, baby wipes by fedex for christmas then?

SSG Geezer

on Dec 23, 2006

I have had water pressure the who;e time since I live three blocks from the base. The SW part of town was dry for the better part of 4 days with non-potable water the rest of the time. (till late thursday.)

mignuna

on Dec 23, 2006

a large number of my Co-workers have had to visit friends with water or shower at the gym on base before work and after PT.

... or stink!

it's great to 'see' you.

mig xxx

Talisein

on Dec 26, 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, Old Man.

pseudosoldier

on Jan 16, 2007

I was without water for most of the day prior to leaving to drive to Virginia. After I returned and saw all the work email related to this event, I was happy to have missed it.

Hworang

on Apr 24, 2007

God I suck at keeping in touch.

Anyway, good to see that you're still alive and kicking.

Drop me a line if you want, vcdragoon@gmail.com

ParaTed2k

on Dec 25, 2007

Merry Christmas, SSG!

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