City Deals With Water Main Breaks

The City of Tulsa is battling a rash of water line breaks caused by the heat.  The News On 6's Emory Bryan reports another one happened on Friday.

Usually this time of year, water line breaks are caused by dirt drying and pulling the lines apart, but the breaks this time are caused by high demand for water.

Roy Shephard is halfway through another 16 hour shift fixing ruptured water lines.  And, he's been working those kind of days all week.

"Just have patience, we'll get around to it," said Roy Shephard.

Underneath the sod is a 12" water line that ruptured Friday morning.  It's typical of the 50 water line breaks reported to the city in the last week.

"Right now, what we're experiencing is blowouts because of pressure, it's not ground movement at this point," said Rick Caruthers with the City of Tulsa.

On Thursday, Tulsa's two water plants produced 160 million gallons.  The demand comes from sprinkler systems and pools and even hot thirsty people.  Supplying that much demand increases pressure on the lines and causes blowouts.

It's nowhere near a record, but still enough to keep eight crews working long days.

Now that the hottest part of the week has passed, the number of breaks is dropping, but the city says the crews will be working on through the weekend.

"16 hours, I mean whatever it takes we want to make sure our customers have water," said Roy Shephard.

The process takes time:  to dig out the hole and pump out the water before they can start the repair.

Three hours later, the crew had made progress, but the 18 customers attached to the line were still without water.  Repairs typically take five to six hours.

"Guys been working long hours this week, but we're getting it taken care of," said Rick Caruthers with the City of Tulsa.

The demand dropped Friday with cooler weather, and the city hopes to catch up on the work over the weekend.

The City of Tulsa has plenty of water and that's not threatened by these breaks, which are typically contained to an area of just a block or two.