Water supply never failed during crisis
While some Hartselle water customers experienced low water pressure the morning of Jan. 4 as a result of a turbidity problem at the Decatur Utilities Water Treatment Plant, water flow continued and pressure improved during the day thanks to emergency measures taken by Hartselle Utilities.
This emergency water station was opened at Highway 36 and Ironman Road Monday night but had not been used as of noon the following day.
Low water pressure in Decatur created widespread problems Jan. 3 as many office buildings, including the Morgan County Courthouse, Decatur Municipal Building, industries and restaurants, closed until the water supply could be restored. There was no slowdown in Hartselle, however.
“We had enough water in our storage tanks to take care of our customers for 18 hours when the problem was detected but the pressure in our high level system dropped to 17 psi Monday night and we started pulling from the low level system to help support it. The psi had risen to 60 by 10:30 a.m.,” HU General Manager Ferrell Vest said.
Vest said two measures helped alleviate the potential for a crisis crisis in Hartselle.
“We asked Falkville to transfer their demand from us to East Lawrence and West Morgan and Mayor Jimmie Walker graciously agreed to do that. This reduced our demand from DU by 10 percent. We also discussed the situation with Hartselle School Superintendent Dr. Mike Reed and he made the decision to delay the opening of schools for a day. That helped out a lot.”
Hartselle Schools were closed Jan. 4 to help alleviate the need for water in the city.
In cooperation with DU and the Morgan County Emergency Management Agency, East Lawrence and West Morgan Water Authority set up three free emergency water pickup stations late Monday night. They were located at Highway 36 and Ironman Road, Moadus and Old Moulton Roads in Trinity and Five Points and Danville Road in the Neel community.
As of noon on Tuesday, no one had requested water at Highway 36 and Iron Man Road, according to District 2 employees Ben Norris and Ricky Maples.
DU’s capacity to treat 18 million gallons of water a day from its intakes on the Tennessee was reduced to about two million gallons as a result of the water’s high turbidity.
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