Pipe burst leads to water leak in Spring Park

Flooding has been an issue in parts of Alabama over the last few weeks due to the amount of rain the state has seen.

When it came to the flood of water spotted in Spring Park on June 17, however, the weather had nothing to do with it.

A burst section of water line caused a significant amount of water to run out of the ground downhill into the pond.

According to Tuscumbia Utilities General Manager Jeff McDonald, a visitor to the park spotted the leak and called the department early that morning.

He said the leak was contained within about 30 minutes of the call.

“We haven’t dug down to the break yet,” McDonald said on June 22. “That is a cast iron line that was probably put in place in the late 1940s. The leak may have been caused by a pipe failure. When cast iron pipes fail they usually completely snap, and I’m guessing that’s what happened here. That’s why we don’t use cast iron pipes anymore.”

McDonald said the faulty water pipe is in a very deep section of infrastructure where the original line from the old water treatment plant ran.

That section of pipe ties into modern pipes run from the new water treatment facility and is used as a back feed.

“We have an alternate feed coming down Main Street,” McDonald said. “We were able to close off the valve on the old line on each side of the leak. One valve is in the park, the other is in the driveway of the old treatment plant.”

McDonald said his department is going to wait until after this week’s Helen Keller Festival to dig up the faulty pipe and fix the issue.

Once the necessary materials are in hand, he said he hopes the repair will only take about four days.

“We did get some calls from customers about low water pressure around town, but as soon as we got the bad section of pipe isolated the pressure stabilized,” he said.

McDonald said about 100,000 gallons of water were lost in the leak, which would cost about $535 retail.