Bob Foos
Webb City public works staff were scrambling last week to locate a water leak in the system that was so large that the water tower level was dropping.
City Administrator Carl Francis said the urgent situation became known on Tuesday when the wells were pumping nearly 24 hours a day, and the water pressure was still dropping. The pumps normally run 12 to 14 hours a day.
The auxiliary valve connecting the system to the Missouri American system in Joplin was opened in order to maintain pressure while the search was on to locate the leak.
Francis said the loss was so massive that it must have been in an out-of-the-way location. Otherwise, it certainly would have been noticed.
After searching Wednesday and Thursday for the leak, Francis said it was just getting worse. A call for help went out to Troy Westrum, of Westrum Leak Detection in Stratford, Iowa.
Westrum had been here in June to conduct an annual survey of the system. He has proven the value of his service so much that the city renewed a 5-year agreement with his firm in September.
Francis admits to being in awe of how Westrum – on a scooter with a small instrument – is able to accurately find leaks that are usually of much less consequence than this one was.
Westrum located the massive leak within a couple of hours of his arrival, and the water department went to work to stop the loss.
The leak was by a storage building on West Seventh Street, just east of Prairie Flower Road.
Francis said the old iron pipe snapped. It wasn’t a gradually occurring leak. He estimates the system was losing 600,000 gallons per day.
Eddie Kreighbaum, public works director, told the City Council on Monday that the ground was saturated around the break, which made it difficult to get heavy equipment near the site.
But by late Friday night, the job was done, and the system was maintaining pressure without the connection to Joplin.
