CAVE SPRINGS -- Damage to a main water line that serves Bentonville and Cave Springs on Tuesday night resulted in the need for emergency connections to other water utilities.
A private contractor working in Cave Springs struck the 48-inch line near Arkansas 112 around 5 p.m. and immediately called Cave Springs officials to alert them of the error, Cave Springs Mayor Randall Noblett said.
Complete failure of the line occurred around 8 p.m., said Mike Bender, Bentonville Public Works Director. At 8:50 p.m. the city sent out public notification of the issue via the city alert center.
The leak was isolated by 9:45 p.m. and an emergency connection with Rogers Water Utilities was established for Bentonville.
Bender said the contractor that caused the initial damage to the water line was collecting soil samples when they accidentally created the obstruction. Due to the nature of the sampling procedures, the water line was not completely exposed, so the full damage was not observed, he said.
The 25- to 30-foot-deep line will need to be completely exposed before cost or time frame of the repair work can be estimated, Bender said. He said the terrain where the line sits is very rocky.
Bentonville's contractor doing the repair work for the site is Crossland Heavy Contractors, Bender said.
Bender said the water pressure in Bentonville got as low as 18 pounds per square inch Tuesday; it usually runs around 85 psi. He said the city was back at normal water pressure by Wednesday morning.
Even though the amount of pressure was low, Bender said the city never lost water production completely.
Noblett said that Springdale Water Utilities was able to restore water in Cave Springs through an emergency connection. He said everyone affected by the line break had water restored by 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Noblett said the incident may have happened due to misidentification of underground lines on the ground's surface. He said he was not certain of that because he had not been to the scene.
Both Bender and Noblett commended the region as a whole for coming together and the emergency management skills displayed from all cities in the area and their water professionals.