Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Village temporarily loses water

Pump failure at well station caused problem

T.S. Last El Defensor Chieftain General Manager, tslast@dchieftain.com

Dishes piled up in the sink, dirty laundry went unwashed and residents were forced to leave their homes in search of drinking water early this week in Magdalena after the village lost its water supply.

The problem was due to a failed pump at the Trujillo well station over the weekend. The town of about 1,000 residents didn't feel the affect until Monday as the water pressure dwindled to a trickle.

Village officials expected the problem would be resolved by Tuesday night (March 24) and faucets would be flowing again by Wednesday.

As a precaution, Marshal Larry Cearley, who serves as the village's public safety chief, ordered the closure of Magdalena School on Tuesday.

"That's our biggest (water) user," Cearley said of the school while still in emergency water conservation mode late Monday afternoon.

Cearley was sitting in the Magdalena fire station awaiting the delivery of bottled water and a tanker truck filled with 4,000 gallons of potable water to help see the town's residents through the dry spell. It was part of an emergency response plan that was initiated that morning.

Lighting Strikes Twice?

Initially it was thought that lightning might be to blame. A lightning strike had knocked out the telemetry system that controls the well at a booster pump last August. Since then, the pump system has had to be operated manually.

It turned out to be an electrical problem with the pump.

"Apparently it's been out since Saturday," Cearley said. "The tanks have a supply for three days, and the water is running out now."

During Monday's Board of Trustees meeting, Mayor James Wolfe reported that it appeared the problem occurred because insulation had worn off a wire, causing it to short out.

"That finally killed the motor," he said. "We're sorry it happened, but it's not anything we could stop or do anything about."

After the meeting, Wolfe said the village office was flooded with phone calls Monday.

"We had two people answering phones all day when the water pressure was going down," he said, estimating that office workers fielded 70-80 calls on Monday.

Wolfe said most people called to inquire if their water had been shut off. While a few people were upset, most people were understanding, he said.

A Rush for Water

Word spread quickly through town and there was a rush for water at local stores. Village officials were largely relying on word-of-mouth for people to learn water was available at the fire station.

Wolfe said a new pump had to be shipped overnight from Missouri to Albuquerque. Workers from the Williams Windmill company of Lemitar picked up the pump, transported it to Magdalena and installed it on Tuesday. The mayor said it would then take another 24 hours or so before the water pressure built up to the point where service would be fully restored.

Wolfe said longtime residents would recall that the loss of water service used to be a rather common occurrence. The last time it happened was about four years ago, at which time the pump that just burned out was installed.

Wolfe said people might not have noticed any difference this time if the pump had failed on any other day.

"The timing was the worst it could have been," he said. "If it had happened during the week, we would have found out about it sooner and we wouldn't have had to go through this process."

Emergency Response

The process involved contacting the Emergency Operation Center in Socorro as soon as it was realized there was a problem.

"As soon as we heard, we contacted the Red Cross and arranged to pick up water from the Wal-Mart Distribution Center in Los Lunas," said Fred Hollis, Socorro County's emergency service administrator. "The Gatorade came from our stash."

More than 1,300 bottles of water and 300 bottles of Gatorade were transported to Magdalena for public consumption. Hollis and Assistant Emergency Service Administrator Jerry Wheeler delivered the liquids to the Magdalena station about 6:30 p.m. on Monday.

About the same time, Richard Smith of Magdalena showed up with his tanker truck with a load of potable water he retrieved from the Stallion site south of San Antonio.

People could come to the fire station to pick up 20-ounce bottles of drinking water, rationed at two bottles per person every four hours, and fill containers with water from the truck.

Cearley said water was immediately delivered to several elderly or homebound residents.

Meanwhile, EMS personnel stayed at the fire station until 10 that night and returned to distribute water by 8 the next morning.

Backup Plans

Another precautionary measure coordinated through the Emergency Operations Center was to bring a tanker truck from the San Antonio Fire Department to Magdalena, to supplement the village fleet in case there was a fire in town. Cearley said water could also be retrieved from the Hop Canyon station, if necessary.

Cearley said two area residents, Ed Erickson and Luther Broaddus, also offered people in need of water the use of their private wells.

The Trujillo well is one of four wells capable of serving the village. Cearley said two of the wells are currently inactive and another one is in need of a pump, which is expected to be installed this summer.

"So eventually we'll have a second well as a backup," he said.

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