David Truesdale, owner of Truesdale Plumbing in Columbus, responded to a call about a bursting water pipe in one of his customer’s homes on Christmas Eve as temperatures continued to remain lower than freezing.
By Tuesday, he had completed eight more such jobs and had five others needing to be scheduled. He expects that will only increase as much of the Golden Triangle continues to thaw out this week.
“The yard (pipes breaking) is what’s going to start happening next,” Truesdale said. “People won’t necessarily know they have a leak unless they check their meter for it. They’ll go outside, and there will be more and more (leaking water) and then the next day, they’ll see a huge puddle of water or standing water in their yard.”
Freezing pipes can burst in one of two ways: if the pipe freezes, it could expand to a breaking point and burst before becoming totally frozen, or because of the freeze itself, it may only break once the ice melts, releasing the pressure from the broken pipe, Truesdale said.
The cost to repair a broken water pipe can vary, though it usually starts at around $120. If plumbers have to tear out walls to reach leaking or burst water lines, costs can significantly increase.
In addition to the eight jobs Truesdale has responded to, more than 300 calls have been made about broken, frozen or leaking water pipes since Friday afternoon throughout the Golden Triangle, according to the various county and city water utilities in the area.
Columbus Light and Water Manager Angela Verdell told The Dispatch that since the cold weather set in, her office has received about 126 phone calls regarding busted pipes and had to repair a main water line over the weekend on 18th Avenue North.
“We were going and turning water services off for customers who called with broken pipes,” Verdell said. “If water is spewing everywhere, they make the call and we come out to shut the water off completely so that they can have time to get those pipes prepared.”
East Lowndes Water Association, which serves areas between Columbus and New Hope, lost pressure in one of its main lines on Ridge Road, causing the water utility to release a precautionary boil water notice to about 90 residents that lasted less than a day. General Manager Brad Braddock said he and his team repaired the line Friday evening and collected water samples to test for contamination from the leak but found none.
“When you lose water pressure, basically you issue what they call a precautionary boil water notice does not mean anything’s wrong with the water it just means that you lost pressure,” Braddock said. “One of my operators grabbed two samples and I personally drove them to a lab in Tuscaloosa. And they called me Saturday morning with the results that were clear.”
Starkville Utilities Department Manager Edward Kemp said the city also had to repair part of a main water line on Whitfield Street after a cap in the pipe burst from the cold, leading to large amounts of water leaking into the street and yard of a residence. The utility eventually blocked off a portion of the road and used heavy equipment to clear off water and mud to repair the line on Saturday.
“I rode through there again Saturday evening and the water pretty much dissipated at that point,” Kemp said.
Kemp also noted the utility took to its social media accounts to advise neighbors there may have been some brown water. Still, he has not received any word on specific cases of it and does not expect it to be an issue moving forward.
“We tried to alert the adjacent neighbors that there may be some brown water that happens just due to the opening and closing of valves,” he said. “Any time there is disruption of a line like that it can kind of stir up some of the sediment in the pipe.”
West Point Sewer and Water Chief Operations Officer Bob Edwards said that as warmer temperatures move into the area, local utilities may see even more broken water pipes.
“That’s very, very possible,” Edwards said. “The only issues that we really had with water was we had some electronics, some gave us some false readings and things like that there froze up, but we worked through those issues.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 33 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
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