Springdale waterline cracks, shuts schools

31 campuses close; breach stopped

Springdale Water Utilities personnel drain the area around a 36-inch waterline that broke early Thurs day, disrupting service to a large portion of the city.
Springdale Water Utilities personnel drain the area around a 36-inch waterline that broke early Thurs day, disrupting service to a large portion of the city.

SPRINGDALE -- A main waterline broke early Thursday morning, spilling more than 1 million gallons of water and closing all of the schools in Springdale.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Springdale’s Water Utilities Department personnel work to drain and clear the area where a 36-inch water main broke in Springdale on Thursday.

The 36-inch line broke between 420 and 412 Park St. near Luther George Park and residential neighborhoods. Park Street runs from Emma Avenue, a thoroughfare, toward the southern part of the city.

It's unknown what caused the break, said Heath Ward, Springdale Water Utilities director.

"More than likely it was probably material failure," Ward said. "There was no off-the-wall situation to cause this."

The waterline broke about 4 a.m., and utility workers had the situation under control by 6 a.m. More than 1 million gallons of water gushed from a crack that was more than a foot long, Ward said.

"Considering the size of the crack, we're pretty lucky," he said.

Schools were closed because there was no water at 25 of the 31 campuses at 5 a.m., said Rick Schaeffer, communications director for Springdale Public Schools.

Once service was restored, the schools began cleaning all of their geothermal systems, disassembling and cleaning all flush valves, toilets, sinks and water fountains, and flushing out the boiler systems in all of the kitchens, Schaeffer said.

"So they will be working all day on that. That's a pretty extensive process," Schaeffer said Thursday morning.

Deputy Superintendent Jared Cleveland said the maintenance staff would work throughout the day and night to complete the work so students and staff members could return for classes today.

Ward said, utility personnel contacted Northwest Regional Medical Center-Springdale as soon as the line break was discovered.

The hospital had no problems related to the line break, said Pat Driscoll, vice president of marketing for the hospital.

"We had a drop in water pressure, but it was fixed so quickly that we had no issue," Driscoll said.

It's unknown how many homes in Springdale were affected, but because it was a main line that "transmits massive amounts of water," customers throughout the city, as well as client municipalities Tontitown and Johnson, were affected to some extent, Ward said.

"There were some locations that might have had some cloudy water from a little bit of sediment in there," Ward said. "If the system gets shocked, it can stir that up and give it some discoloration."

A boil order didn't have to be issued.

"We did not issue a boil order because we did not depressurize the system, and after talking to our staff and the Department of Health, we didn't see a need to issue a boil order," Ward said. "We have one of the healthiest water systems from a maintenance standpoint in the state."

A secondary, 16-inch line is being used until the main line can be fully repaired.

Ward said waterline breaks this extensive are rare.

"We deal with line breaks every day, but something of this magnitude is just huge," he said.

Metro on 01/13/2017

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