Major water main break hits Fort Smith
Repair efforts still underway as of late last week
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, March 10, 2014
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
As of late last week, Fort Smith was still recovering from a significant water main break and sewer line blockage.
"It's a major interruption," said Mayor Brad Brake. "It's not an emergency by any means, but it is an inconvenience."
The problem began on Feb. 26 when a valve failed on the water main about 16 feet underneath the intersection of McDougal Road and Conibear Crescent.
That resulted in a massive excavation to find and repair the problem.
"Right now, water has been restored to most of the town," Brake said on March 6. "There is a section of town that is without water, and it's due to some further complications we've encountered while trying to work on the main break."
Various sections of the town have had no water at times, but no single area has not had water for the entire period.
The section of town that was without water on March 6 was Conibear Crescent and the north side of McDougal Road, stretching from Mills Street to Portage Avenue.
Homes, offices, businesses and even two schools have been affected.
Brake said the water main break led to the problem with the sewer.
"What happened is water from the pipe from the water break actually undermined the sewer pipe and got into the sewer and dragged a lot of silt with it, and that's what blocked up the sewer," he explained.
Backup of raw sewage - so-called grey water - affected the basements of town hall, the federal building and a private residence.
The sewer was unblocked last week, but the water main problems persisted.
Brake said he could not predict when the problem would be corrected, but he was hoping it might have been sometime over this past weekend.
"I think we're close to having the break fixed, but something else could go wrong. There are too many variables there," he said. "Literally, we were at the final stages of repair on it just a day or two ago, and it failed again. The pipe failed five feet away from where the guys were working to do the repair. So we're not providing a timeline right now. We don't want to put a timeline on it because we don't want to get people's hopes up."
At one point in the middle of last week, water was temporarily cut off to the entire town late at night to allow repairs to proceed.
Ken Hudson, president of the Fort Smith Metis Council, was affected by the water interruption both at his office and at his home.
Hudson said it was not too bad at his home, because he's used to being in the bush.
"We always take water with us," he said. "So we just went and filled a bunch of jugs at my daughter's place. We coped. As long as we got coffee and stuff, that's good enough."
Hudson said like everyone else in town, he thought the problem would be fixed in a few hours after it first happened.
On March 6, he and a couple of other people from the Fort Smith Metis Council took jugs of water and went door-to-door to check on people.
"Every person we went to needed water," he said. "So we just poured it in whatever containers they had."
People needing water could also get it at the Rec Centre.
The water issues also closed Paul William Kaeser (PWK) High School on March 3 and 4, and Joseph Burr Tyrrell School on March 5 and 6.
Steven Lee, the public affairs co-ordinator with the South Slave Divisional Education Council (SSDEC), noted PWK is connected to the Rec Centre, which has water.
"So the students are using the facilities there and school's going on as normal," he said.
The water problem has also affected the SSDEC offices on McDougal Road.
"We're making do," said Lee.
Brake said he wouldn't speculate how much the repairs will cost.
The mayor expressed appreciation to the workers making the repairs.
"It's a tough job at a very tough time of year to be doing it," he said.
Brake also noted town residents have been very understanding and patient, and very appreciative of the job the workers are doing.
