NewsLeak

A water line recently ruptured in Sand Springs, Oklahoma, and was declared an emergency at a city council meeting shortly after. The city's water department received $125,000 to fix the leak at the intersection of Main Street and Morrow Road.

The Sand Springs Leader reported the leak was first discovered in late October when a problem with a tapping saddle from 2004 was found. City engineer Jessee Vaverka said having a leak in a saddle is the worst possible location because the repair demands specialty work that many companies do not perform. While city officials were finding an accurate leak detection company to fix the water line, Sand Springs crews tried to isolate the flowing water. However, for the repairs to occur successfully, crews will have to use a stopping device to control the leak.

Another water leak was recently discovered in a sewer line in Neshoba County, Mississippi. The Neshoba Democrat reported the broken sewer line is not related to an unidentified leak at the former U.S. Motors facility that dumped 300,000 gallons of water into the sewer in October. The facility is undergoing renovations, and, once those are complete, the leak will be located and fixed promptly.

Repairs to the sewer line break will be funded through a $1 million Community Development Block Grant that the city received to make repairs and upgrades on its older buildings before AlphaGen's plant moved into the city. One of the many projects being funded by the grant will be the repair to water leaks and the replacement of sanitary sewer service throughout the area, the source reported.

Substantial water damage was found in the secretary office and conference room of the Valley View School in Portland, Oregon, after a pipe in the ceiling sprung a leak. The leak was repaired quickly, and the school is working on cleaning up the damaged property.

The Middletown Press reported the pipe that ruptured was installed in the school in 1993, and the leak released enough water to cause the ceiling tiles to collapse in the secretary's office and spill over into a conference room and a classroom. The students are on winter vacation, and thus were not in school when the leak occurred. The school expects the repairs to be finished before the students come back.

In addition, a water main break at Tuscarora State Park recently occurred over the Christmas weekend, forcing workers to shut down a restroom at the park due to water damage. The Republican Herald reported maintenance crews expect the repairs to be complete within two weeks, and only expect about 10 people to be affected by the leak. The restroom that was closed was the only one open during the winter months.

According to the source, state park officials do not know the source of the leak, and will run water through the system to find where the leak is located.

"Once you get so much water into the tower, we can turn on the valves and see where the leak's coming from," Frank Zalusky, park maintenance supervisor, told the source.