UPDATE: Boil Water Near Lavallette LIFTED
Last modified on August 24th, 2022 at 08:22 am
===============================
Water system personnel are responding to a water leak in a service line in the 1400 block of Lavallette Avenue. Water had to be secured as quickly as possible to minimize flooding.
While repairs are underway, water will be off or low pressure for customers on Lavalette Avenue, Taylor Avenue, and their adjacent alleys, as well parts of 13th Street and Livingston Avenue. (The approximate area is shown in red on the below map.) South Davis Avenue customers are not served by the affected lines.
After repairs are complete and service has been restored, a Boil Water Notice will be in effect for these customers (not including South Davis Avenue customers). The earliest that laboratory testing can be completed and the notice lifted is Wednesday, August 24.
Boil Water Notices are issued out of an abundance of caution because positive pressure has been lost and the possibility of contamination exists, not because contamination has been detected. The presence or absence of contamination must be confirmed by an independent lab through a testing process that requires at least 24 hours after delivery of a sample. Samples cannot be taken until the leak has been repaired and service has been restored. Samples can only be submitted during business hours. For more information about what to do under a Boil Water Notice, click here.
Notification will be sent out when the Boil Water Notice is lifted. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience during this time.
To keep up to date on these and similar announcements, please bookmark this blog post and follow these channels:
- Sign up for emergency email and text-message alerts
- Elkins City Hall Facebook page
- Elkins City Hall Twitter account
Elkins Water Board Recommends Emergency Rate Increase
The Elkins Water Board has recommended an emergency rate increase of 32 percent for city water customers, and the Elkins council could approve the increase as soon as September 15.
This increase, which is essential for the utility to avoid insolvency in response to regulatory changes at the state level and huge inflation-driven increases in supply costs, would become effective immediately upon passage. An additional 3 percent increase would become effective in summer of 2023. (more…)
Leak Investigation near Children’s Home
Update at 6:32 a.m.: The leak has been isolated without affecting other customers. Barring failure of the valve to this line, it should be possible to proceed with repairs without an outage in the area.
===========
Elkins Water Board employees are responding to a leak in the vicinity of the West Virginia Children’s Home, on Maryland Avenue.
Starting approximately 7 a.m., water customers in the area will experience low or no water pressure. Affected streets may include Pleasant Avenue, Maple Street, Maryland Avenue, Heavner Avenue, and others nearby. The precise outage area will not be known until it can be determined which line the leak is on.
New Web Page: Water Outages FAQ
Water leaks and outages affect all water systems. Starting in 2021, however, our system began seeing a significant increase in such incidents, especially in South Elkins. This year, Elkins water system workers have responded to dozens of leaks in South Elkins. Although many of these leaks were repaired “under pressure” and did not require water to be turned off, that part of our city experienced 19 water outages during 2021.
There are various factors contributing to this situation, and fully addressing all of them will take a significant amount of time and money.
Follow this link for answers to frequently asked questions about why this is happening and what we are doing about it. (While you’re at it, please consider signing up for City of Elkins Nixle alerts so you can receive advance notification of water outages, in addition to other important emergency information.)
12/5: Outage Between South Davis and Livingston
Last modified on December 10th, 2021 at 05:02 pm
Why So Many Water Outages?
There is clearly an unacceptable number of ongoing water outages and sometimes resulting Boil Water Notices.
What is going on?
One major reason is that many underground water lines in Elkins are past their end-of-life and need to be replaced.
The reason problems have spiked lately in South Elkins, however, is related to the great amount of soil disturbance that occurred as part of the sewer/stormwater separation project earlier this year. (It appears that the soil under much of South Elkins is *extremely* soft and bordering on liquid in places.)
Making things even worse are the large number of broken valves throughout our system. Valves are used to turn off the flow of water to certain sections of the system.
In a perfect world, for last night’s repair on Whiteman Avenue, we could have closed a valve that would have caused an outage for only a small number of surrounding customers.
However, because many of the smaller valves are not functioning, it is necessary to instead turn off valves on larger mains, which results in outages over a much wider area. (This is one reason why our water workers often attempt to make repairs “under pressure,” meaning without turning off the water, to avoid these outages. This means they must work with spraying water, which is obviously less practical as the weather gets colder.)
So, what is the city doing about this?
Council has dedicated a portion of ARPA funds to an engineering study and plan for the systematic replacement and upgrading of the city’s water lines. Although we won’t know exact costs of such a project until this study is complete, it will likely cost tens of millions of dollars.
Addressing this problem is a current focus of council and the Water Board and plans are being formulated to address it, however it will be a long process. It may be that the valve issue is “low hanging fruit” and could be addressed sooner than later, reducing the number of widespread outages. We are actively working to determine this.
Some Facebook commenters have wondered what would happen if there were a fire in an area experiencing an outage. Keep in mind that these outages result not from the water-main break but from turning off the water at a valve. If there were a fire and hydrants were needed in an affected area, we would simply reenergize the valve and restore service. Although this would cause the broken pipe to start leaking again, this would obviously be acceptable in the face of a need to protect life and property from fire.
Other Facebook commenters wondered why we don’t predict when repairs will be completed when there are outages. The problem is that we just don’t know. For example, especially due to the extremely brittle cast-iron pipes prevalent in South Elkins, sometimes turning the water on after one leak triggers another, which can as much as double repair times. It is just not practical to try to accurately predict repair times.
Another issue: Even if we had the tens of millions of dollars necessary to make all needed improvements in hand right now, there are and will continue to be significant inventory problems, due to both the pandemic supply-chain issues and the fact that every city in the country has ARPA funds to spend on projects like this, including huge cities with much larger projects *and* much larger ARPA disbursements that are able to basically clear the shelves of the same pipes and valves we would need.
Everyone at the city (many of whom live in South Elkins are affected themselves) is frustrated about this situation and deeply regrets the frequent inconvenience. We hope everyone understands that this is a big problem that cannot be fixed overnight but is being worked on.
Follow the below links to learn more about:
South Elkins Boil Water Advisory
Last modified on November 27th, 2021 at 10:16 am
** Update: November 27, 10:15 AM**
The boil water notice in South Elkins has been lifted. Laboratory testing found no contamination.
======================
As a result of loss of pressure on a water main caused by a leak, a Boil Water Notice has been issued for water customers in South Elkins in the area bounded by Bond Lane, Ward Avenue, the Tygart River, and Whiteman Avenue. (See map at the bottom of this post.)
Boil Water Notices are issued out of an abundance of caution because positive pressure has been lost and the possibility of contamination exists, not because contamination has been detected. The presence or absence of contamination must be confirmed by an independent lab through a testing process that requires at least 24 hours after delivery of a sample. For more information about what to do under a Boil Water Notice, click here.
Notification will be sent out when the Boil Water Notice is lifted. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience during this time.
To keep up to date on these and similar announcements, please follow the following channels:
- Sign up for emergency email and text-message alerts
- Elkins City Hall Facebook page
- Elkins City Hall Twitter account
South Elkins Water Outage
Water system employees responding to a leak near Ward and Taylor are excavating to find the source of the problem. Depending which line is affected, the repair process may result in low or no water pressure throughout the area of South Elkins shown in the below map.
Update 2: Edgewater Boil Water Advisory Lifted
Update as of 10/15, 9:41 a.m.: The Edgewater boil water advisory has been lifted. Lab tests detected no contamination in our sample. Thank you for your patience.
Update as of 10/14, 8:35 a.m.: Repairs are complete and water service has been restored. However, Edgewater Drive customers remain under a boil water advisory. A water sample is being collected and taken to an independent lab in Clarksburg for testing, a process that requires at least 24 hours to determine whether or not any contamination has occurred. The boil water advisory will therefore remain in place until at least noon on Friday.
==========================
Water Outage in Much of South Elkins
There has been a major water-main break in the 200 block of Edgewater Drive.
As a result of this break, water customers living on Edgewater Drive are now under a boil-water advisory that can be expected to last for approximately the next 48 hours.
Work to repair this break will result in a widespread area of low or no water pressure in South Elkins. Water system employees are working to restore service as quickly as possible.
Boil-water advisories are issued out of an abundance of caution because positive pressure has been lost and the possibility of contamination exists, not because contamination has been detected. Detection of contamination requires analysis by an independent lab. For more information about what to do under a boil-water advisory, click here.
Notification will be sent out when the boil water advisory is lifted. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused and appreciate your patience during this time.
To keep up to date on these and similar announcements, please follow the following channels:
- Subscribe to the city’s email newsletter
- Elkins City Hall Facebook page
- Elkins City Hall Twitter account
- Submit mobile phone number for city Nixle alerts (separate list from county Nixle alerts): ElkinsNixle@cityofelkinswv.com
Water Line Replacement Near Orchard Street
On Monday, City of Elkins Water System employees will start a three-phase project to replace a water line under a disused alley near Orchard Street that has been the source of frequent leaks in recent years. The project is currently projected to continue through Friday and is being timed to minimize service interruptions in the area.
“We’ll be replacing a two-inch line that has been problematic for the last several years,” says Wes Lambert, chief operator of the Elkins Water System. “We’ve already had to repair this line multiple times this year alone.”
The source of the trouble has to do with the material the line is made from.
“This line is made from galvanized metal, like a lot of our lines, and unfortunately galvanized line is very prone to corrosion,” says Lambert. “We try to eliminate galvanized lines from our system whenever we get the opportunity.”
The galvanized line will be replaced with a 6-inch line made from C900, an extremely durable, flexible, corrosion-free PVC pipe material designed for potable water systems. Because of their smooth interior wall surfaces, C900 pipes dramatically decrease buildup of the sediments that can cause discoloration at the tap. A similar upgrade from galvanized to C900 is planned soon for a water line on nearby Woodland Drive.
The replacement near Orchard Street will proceed in three phases.
During Phase 1, crews will install a t-fitting and valve on the 8-inch main Orchard Street line.
“We’re starting Phase 1 on Monday at 10 p.m. to minimize impact on businesses and residences,” says Lambert. “Water will be shut off to nearby customers at this time but we’re hoping that won’t affect too many people that late at night.”
Customers should expect to have no or low pressure on Monday night at Third Ward Elementary School and the Randolph Village Apartments, as well as on Orchard Street, Grant Street, Dairy Avenue, Pleasant Avenue, Pine Street, Walnut Street, Nathan Street, Yokum Street, and Westview Drive. Taco Bell and Wendy’s will also be affected.
During Phase 2, scheduled for daytime hours on Tuesday, Lambert’s team will install roughly 500 feet of the new 6-inch C900 line parallel to the old, galvanized line that is marked for replacement. After installation, the new C900 line will be charged with water and chlorinated for a 24-hour period. Then, water samples from the line will be sent to a lab to test for E. coli and other bacteria.
“No one’s water service should be affected during Phase 2 on Tuesday,” says Lambert. “As soon as the water in the new line tests clean, we will be safe to start Phase 3 of the project.”
Phase 3 is scheduled to run during the day on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. During Phase 3, water system employees will connect customers to the new C900 line. Each customer is expected to experience only a brief interruption in water service as this work proceeds.
“Once we get everyone connected to the new line, we’ll kill and abandon the old, galvanized line,” says Lambert. “It’ll be a relief to say goodbye to that one.”
##
Alerts
MLK Day (1/16) Schedule
Elkins City Hall will be closed on Monday, January 16 in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.
Garbage service will run on regular schedule.
Christmas Tree Disposal
The City of Elkins Street Department will collect Christmas trees for disposal January 3-20. Please place trees at the curb after removing all ornaments, tinsel, lights, etc.
Starting Jan. 1: No more phone payments
Starting Jan. 1, City of Elkins will no longer accept phone payments for any city bills or services. Learn more.
No Spring Cleanup
Because of the city’s monthly bulk-item pickup program, we will no longer be offering Spring Cleanup. Don’t wait until spring, put your items out each month. Find the schedule for pickups here.
Bulk Pickups Schedule Change
As of the week of October 17, the bulk-item pickup schedule is changing. Find the new schedule here.
Water Issues?
Last modified on May 8th, 2022 at 10:51 am
Got a non-emergency water issue? Report it online by clicking here.
