South Tuscaloosa Urged To Conserve Water Until Leak Repaired

Tuscaloosa AL

20 June, 2021

5:17 PM

Description

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The City of Tuscaloosa is urging residents south of the Black Warrior River to begin measures to conserve water following a leak somewhere in the system being identified by lift station operators at the Ed Love Water Treatment Plant early Sunday morning. Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox issued an emergency executive order Sunday as officials work to identify the source of the leak, which is likely somewhere on a two-mile stretch of line running along or beneath the Black Warrior River. Unable to see the video link above for today's full press conference? Click here to watch. City officials estimate "tens of thousands" of customers on the southern part of the city and county will be in the affected area, while drinking water for Northport residents moves through the Jerry Plott Water Treatment Plant from Lake Tuscaloosa. This could pose potential problems for the University of Alabama, Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Hunt Oil and others, as the Ed Love Water Treatment Plant is only capable of pumping 22 million gallons of treated water per day. Conversely, the plant has a capacity of approximately 40 million gallons per day when the lines are operating properly and feeds out to rural water associations in the southern part of Tuscaloosa. "That's sufficient today," Maddox said. "Coming off a major rain event, I don't think we are going to see a lot of irrigation that is going to be going on across the city or extra water use. But it does set up some issues we need to take very seriously." The clock is also ticking, he said. "How long will this take? We could be finding it right now or it could take days," the mayor said. "And the issue is, if this takes days, this could create some negative impacts for our community." IPS Interim Executive Director Jarrod Milligan pointed out the area where the leak is located is currently underwater or dense vegetation, making it difficult to quickly pinpoint the problem. A diagram showing the lines (in blue) leading to the Ed Love Water Treatment Plant, where many in south Tuscaloosa get their drinking water from. (City of Tuscaloosa) Until the leak is found and repaired, officials said water pressure could likely be impacted for customers, along with the ever-present concern of needing maximum pressure to combat large-scale fires. In response, Maddox says the city as activated Level II of its Incident Command and has been in contact with Gov. Kay Ivey's office, along with emergency officials, to begin the process of securing short-term resources in the event they are needed. The city has also given Milligan the green light to begin working with contractors to quickly repair the leak as soon as it is identified. By Tuesday, Maddox hopes to have an update for the City Council and public on the next steps moving forward. During the interim, Maddox urged residents south of the river to begin conserving water any way they can during what will hopefully be a short-lived crisis. "This is a problem that, if you have a leak, it's not going to get better. It's only going to get worse," Maddox said. "This can get from bad to worse pretty quickly, especially being layered on top of some major fire ... Right now, the best thing people can do south of the river is conserve water, help us keep our tanks full and we will keep you updated as well on the changing conditions regarding this matter." Apart from news of the sewage line leak, Maddox gave the following numbers after Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue responded to numerous calls as a result of Tropical Storm Claudette. According to Tuscaloosa Amphitheater rain gauge, the venue received 7.84 inches of rain, with 4.4 inches falling in just two hours. The city responded to 14 sanitary sewer overflows Saturday. Tuscaloosa Fire Rescue conducted 14 high-water rescues, while also responding to 10 major vehicle accidents, four downed trees, 23 medical calls, one fire and a gas leak Saturday. Have a news tip or suggestion on how I can improve Tuscaloosa Patch? Maybe you're interested in having your business become one of the latest sponsors for Tuscaloosa Patch? Email all inquiries to me at ryan.phillips@patch.com.