Water Update 12.18.24
12/18/2024
12.18.24 3pm Update....
Update to the previous alert below regarding the high dosage of chlorine that we will be flushing through the lines.
Since we want to continue to send water to your homes so residents are able to bath and flush toilets, we are having to split the flow of water, with some water being sent into the town distribution lines and the majority sent to our storage tank. For that reason, it is taking longer to fill the tank than we anticipated.
Our revised plan is to begin sending the highly chlorinated water into town Thursday, December 19, 2024 at 1200, with the goal of having the lines restored to a safe level of chlorine by approximately 4:00 pm.
When this happens, the water will be UNUSABLE in any way, and the water flowing from your tap will be unsafe to consume, even with boiling.
We will monitor the tank level throughout the night and will send a revised timeline in the morning.
Update December 18, 2024 @ 0130
We had a long day today and plan to start again early am, so I will keep this update brief.
On December 17 @ 0800 we began excavation on the site that was selected as a probable site by leak detection expert Tana Kohler of the Cooper Con leak detection company. Ironically, the leak was about 10’ from our water treatment plant in the parking lot, about 10 feet deep and under 7” of asphalt. The location around the pipe had a significant amount of gravel and the underlying ground was very porous - very conducive to draining. A significant stream, Bennett creek, is about 150’ to the east, so it appears as though the leaking water joined with ground water and traveled undetected to the stream.
Our Ogden based parts supplier, Core and Main, had to travel to Alpine to secure the necessary repair parts, then return to Huntsville. Our amazing construction crew, of Thom Summers and sons construction, had the repair completed by about 2 pm. The line was then pressurized with water.
On December 18 (this morning), we will continue to work through the necessary steps to have our boil order removed. We plan to clean our storage tank, then will begin the process of filling the tank with a high dosage of chlorine. We will let it sit for a period of time to kill any potential bacteria, then we will drain and partially refill the tank again, to comply with EPA and state water quality requirements.
Concurrently, we will take several daily water samples at locations throughout our distribution system to ensure there is no contamination. Incidentally, the two samples taken yesterday came back clean and bacteria free.
The process will take a few days, and rest assured we are working with state officials and our water team to expedite the process as much as possible.
After a full day at the water plant and the site of the leak, we met with our local business owners last evening at 7 pm. While all of our residents have been greatly inconvenienced by this water crisis, our businesses have lost their livelihood. We wanted to provide them with important updates and let them have their questions and concerns answered.
I have been posting daily videos to our Facebook page. Search Facebook for The Town of Huntsville Utah to follow. You will find daily video updates, as well as videos from the field with descriptions of our leak finding process and repairs. As an aside, I post directly to our Facebook page, so that is often the site for the most timely updates. Email updates may have a lag - we work long days in the field, and I typically draft the updates in the evening, then forward the update to Shannon of our staff, who posts the information to our web site and distributes to our email list.
That’s all for now. Thanks for your support, patience and understanding. Together we will get through this crisis.
Revised Distribution Times and locations for water filling stations and bottled water
Huntsville Maintenance Building - filling station and bottled water distribution -
10-11 am and
5-6 pm
Eden Park Bowery -
24 hours
Huntsville LDS Stake center water filling hydrant -
morning to evening