Water leaks in the aging distribution system in historic Eureka Springs have cost the city a lot of money in charges from the Carroll Boone Water District. In recent years the city has been losing 50 percent of the water traveling in the distribution system. But the city has recently made progress in finding and fixing some of the more substantial leaks, Public Works Director Simon Wiley said.
One of the significant leaks fixed lately was at 34 Hillside near King Street. Wiley said that line was not on their maps, and the pipe was corroded and old.
“That is the leak that caused water to flow down the hill and across the sidewalk on North Main Street and into the gutter,” Wiley said. “We tried to chase the line up Hillside, but the line disappeared as we were working our way up. That is the leak we are most proud of finding because a lot of water was being lost and it was very visible on Main Street.”
Public Works recently fixed a leak at 104 Huntsville Rd. near the old Ozark Village Restaurant. This line was unknown on city maps and parallels an 8-inch main and a 12-inch main. Wiley said there is another leak in that area that Public Works is trying to find.
In a report to the mayor, Wiley listed these additional areas where leaks have been detected and repaired.
- 133 E. Van Buren. A two-inch service line had multiple leaks. The ductile iron was in very poor shape. One leak was fixed, and another identified.
- 17 Steele St. Two leaks were found on a 3/4-inch service line.
- Huntsville Rd. at the United Methodist Church. A leaking one-inch service line was fixed.
- 40 Armstrong. A PVC service line break was repaired.
- 23 Douglas. A service line was repaired.
- 60 S. Main. Barrows Excavation is trying to pinpoint a large leak in this area. This 6-inch main is ductile iron and in very poor condition.
The city hired McKim & Creed, an engineering and survey firm, to work on detecting leaks. Wiley said he expects the firm to complete water leak detection work by Sept. 15. He is recommending the city hire the same company to address another long-time problem in Eureka Springs, inflow and infiltration of stormwater into the sewer system.
“We have to treat everything that comes into the plant,” Wiley said. “When we have a big inflow of water, we have to treat it and it has extra solids. A lot of biosolids are dirt, and we have to haul them to the landfill just like everything else. This is common in other cities, old and new. We have been trying for the past year to get everything up to par. For example, we have sewer lift stations with only one pump. If that last pump goes, it overflows. We don’t want that.”
He said Public Works is also doing a lot of cross training. There are Public Works employees with a lot of institutional knowledge, and it is important for other workers to learn from them in order to be able to do similar tasks. An example is the sewer plant, where plant operators work 40 hours during the week and checkups are needed on weekends to make sure nothing abnormal has developed. Personnel are being trained to do weekend checks at the sewer plant that involve filling out forms and taking photos.
Wiley encourages city residents to visit the City of Eureka Springs Public Works Facebook page for information on projects going on in the city.