Lily Lake water line
springs leaks

By Tom Morphet

Two major leaks in two years have prompted Haines Borough officials to start planning replacement of the buried pipe that connects the town’s water system to its source at Lily Lake.

The most recent failure came April 16, when a half-dollar-size hole opened in the the 8-inch pipe that connects the lake to the borough’s water treatment plant on FAA Road, said water and sewer operator Scott Bradford.

Pressure into the plant quickly dropped by more than half, Bradford said. There was no problem finding the hole in the two-mile-long pipeline. The leak carved a car-sized pit into the hillside about 800 feet south of the plant.

 “The whole bottom side of the pipe is corroded really bad. It’s all pitted,” Bradford said. Fixing the pipe involved digging through about six feet of snow to reach an in-line valve, then wrapping the faulty section in a steel band.

 A series of smaller leaks that required a similar fix two years ago occurred about 100 feet away, Bradford said.

The problem is that the pipe appears to have been buried in native, acidic soil and water picking up the acids has eaten away at the 40-year-old pipe, he said. “The bedding allows the groundwater to run alongside the pipe. It’s corroding the ductile, iron pipe from the outside.”

 Bradford last year inspected the pipe at several locations and found the same condition, said borough manager Tom Bolen. “We’re in for a pipeline project whether we like it or not.”

An engineer’s estimate on the cost of replacing the line should be complete in a few weeks and Bradford is hoping to replace existing pipe with one made of high-density polyethylene, a type of strong, flexible, fusable plastic. “Corrosion isn’t going to bother it. It’s going to last forever.”

Because a gated, service road parallels the pipe, replacing it should be a straightforward job, he said. “From a project standpoint, it would be relatively easy.”

Bolen said the municipality may put toward the project $350,000 it recently received from the federal government for replacing 3,000 feet of asbestos pipe along Lynnview and View streets and Fourth Avenue.

Other potential sources of money include state grants and loans and federal stimulus funds, Bradford said. “Being the main supply line, it would probably score fairly high” among funding requests.

The pipe moves about 250,000 gallons of water each day.

The borough also is seeking a $2.4 million federal appropriation to build a 250,000-gallon tank and replace 7,400 feet of pipe at the Piedad water supply. Piedad’s springs provide the town with about 70,000 gallons of water each day, but during high flows, as much as 40,000 gallons bypass the system daily.

Getting more water from Piedad will save the borough money, as the only treatment required of groundwater is chlorination. As a surface source, Lily Lake water arrives at the plant murky and requires additional treatment.