Update on Pine Hill Water

Since we are in a drought, the springs that feed our reservoir are lower than usual. We have a gravity reliant system so the volume of water in those springs determines the pressure of the water going into the reservoir. There is a 3” pipe that travels from the springs to the water house where the water is treated. At the point of entry to the water house the pipe makes a 90 degree turn and goes straight up for a couple feet and then enters the water house for treatment. It then drops back down and goes out into the reservoir as treated water for Pine Hill’s consumption. Again the system relies on gravity to bring water from the reservoir to the people of pine hill.

Since the water is lower than usual the flow from the springs has slowed down and the water was not able to travel up that 90 degree incline into the water house. It simply didn’t have the force behind it. This system is checked daily and this all happened in between the checks from one day to the next. Once the water was unable to travel, there was no water going into the reservoir and our supply was depleted. Immediately upon finding this the water commissioner and his deputy sprang into action. Before that 90 degree turns straight upwards, they added a Y to the pipe and necked it down from 3” to 2” and brought it around the water house and directly into the reservoir. They also turned on the backup well which is a pump that does not rely on gravity and flows through the water house and then releases into the reservoir as well. Both of these water sources are currently flowing into the reservoir.

Since the reservoir “ran dry” there was a good amount of air in the lines that needed to be bled causing outages throughout the town. Again the commissioner and his deputy worked diligently to bleed the air out of the system via fire hydrants throughout the town. They took off time from their 40hr a week jobs and families, woke up early and stayed late to remedy the situation. Even after we had flow returning to the reservoir, it was still filling slowly as it had to fill all of the pipes to all of pine hill which takes considerably longer with the well and now 2” pipe from the springs. Water was trucked in to help the process. The gravity system works at peak performance when there is more water in the reservoir. We plan on having more water trucked in to aid the process of refilling the reservoir to peak capacity. We ask that everyone uses water sparingly to aid this process.

We are currently treating the well water that is going into the reservoir in hopes of being able to lift the boil notice in the near future. There are cases of bottled water at the firehouse for Pine Hill residents.

The water commissioner has current contacts of a few specialists to see if there are any measures we can take to raise the efficiency of the current system under drought conditions. Also to make sure there are no major leaks adding to the problem at hand. They are still bleeding the system daily to try and release any trapped air so you may see them.

We appreciate your patience and hopefully this explanation can shed some light on the subject. Pine Hill water is our top priority right now. We are trying to avoid water interruptions at all costs. What we really need is rain. A lot of it. Until then we will stay vigilant and do the best we can to deliver water to Pine Hill.