Water main break; residents asked to stop outdoor irrigation

Written by Julie Applegate
July 29, 2016

ST. GEORGE — A 12-inch water line that ruptured near the Green Valley Spa in St. George is affecting hundreds of homes and businesses and officials are asking residents to stop watering outdoors.

The break happened about 2:30 p.m. Friday and triggered the temporary closure of Canyon View Drive and south Village Road. The water line serves residents and businesses in the Green Valley and Sunbrook area, Marc Mortensen, assistant to the City Manager of St. George, said.

Residents will be affected in different ways.

“Some will experience low pressure, some will have no water until later this evening,” Mortensen said.

The city is rerouting water to as many customers as possible. The water line will be repaired tonight but residents are being asked to turn off their outdoor watering systems until 8 p.m. Saturday night.

“We don’t mind if people use their showers or their faucets indoors, but the outdoor irrigation is a concern because that’s, you know, 60 percent of all the water used is used on outdoor irrigation,” he said, adding if everyone waters outdoors tonight or tomorrow the affected water tank won’t have a chance to recover.

“So we’re asking everyone to just turn off their outdoor water systems until tomorrow night,” Mortensen said.

“It’s going to take some time for that tank to  restore, once we get the line repaired,” he said. “It’s going to take at least eight to 10 hours to start to fill back up. We’d prefer that no one water in that area until tomorrow night.”

The ruptured line is the main line that fills a city water tank in the Green Valley Gap and provides culinary water to the area. The tank is fed from a variety of sources including wells and reservoir water.

“So you can imagine, the tank is several hundred feet above the area that had the break, so there’s a lot of pressure on that line,” Mortensen said. “Crews immediately shut off the tank and we did lose a lot of water. Water levels at the tank dropped significantly because of the break, and it’s done a fair amount of damage to Canyon View Drive.”

The water line that burst is about 20 years old, Mortensen said. Water lines can last up to 70 years, depending on soil conditions including pressure, soil type, soil movement and other factors.

“We have really corrosive soils in St. George,” he said.

The Sunbrook Golf Club is not affected by the break or by the restrictions because it is not part of the culinary system, Mortensen said. Rather, it is on a secondary “gray” water system fed from a water treatment plant in Bloomington.

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Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2016, all rights reserved.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Julie Applegate is a long-time resident and fan of Southern Utah. She brings a strong background in news writing and editing, formerly as a full-time member of the St. George News team and currently as a contributor. Julie spent several years in the software industry. She believes strongly in the role of responsible news media in society, especially at the local level. In her spare time, Julie can be found exploring Southern Utah on foot and by four-wheel drive or spending time with her family.

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2 Comments

  • .... July 29, 2016 at 8:37 pm

    People with sprinkler systems are two lazy two turn the sprinklers off while it’s raining. .believe me their two lazy two shut them off because of a broken main

  • ladybugavenger July 30, 2016 at 5:57 am

    Stop outside irrigation. We will irrigate for you. Hahahaha! People are too lazy to stop the automatic sprinklers

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