The Haines Borough temporarily shut off water to the Eagle’s Nest Trailer Park for three days last week due to significant leaks that have been occurring for years, according to borough administrators. Borough manager Debra Schnabel said water is currently leaking from several unknown sources in the park at a rate of 1,000 gallons per hour.
The leaks, which the borough has been aware of since September 2018, came to a head since drought conditions and a construction flaw in the Lily Lake water pipe have caused mandatory water restrictions and warnings.
Eagle’s Nest owner Ira Henry has fixed five leaks since the borough informed him that he needed to take action last year, water plant supervisor Dennis Durr said, but the repairs haven’t been enough.
“We’ve known about these leaks for a long time and we haven’t come to a consensus about how to solve this issue,” Durr said. “(Henry is) doing a good job of repairing what he found, but it hasn’t solved the problem. We enacted an emergency measure of shutting him down so as not to lose pressure for the entire town. When things are this close, every bit helps right now,” Durr said last week during the shutoffs.
Henry disputes the severity of the leaks, according to Schnabel. He declined to comment.
Schnabel said the borough plans to meter the park to better monitor the water loss. The borough cut off water to the park from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. for three days last week. Schnabel first gave notice to the park’s residents on Aug. 11.
“It helped significantly every time we shut the leaks off,” Durr said. “But I have been ordered by management to keep the water on, to prevent potential health risk issues. We have not turned the park off since last Friday night. The owner has no immediate plans to fix the leaks.
Trailer park residents told the CVN Tuesday they were unsure if the shutoffs were over or not. Resident Tom Buel, 75, stored water to put in his toilet. “It wasn’t very easy to deal with,” Buel said. “Some of these old folks are pretty feeble and I don’t think they could pour water in their toilets. It hasn’t been shut off today yet. It might not be tonight. I don’t know.”
Betty Clark, 69, said she filled buckets in her bathtub for toilet water. “I don’t like it,” Clark said. “I have to go to the bathroom during the night.”
Dan Kelly, 72, said water pressure at the park was low, but the recent repairs have increased pressure to his trailer. “Now I have pressure better than I’ve ever had. It’s great,” Kelly said. “I hope it stays that way.”
Clark said she hasn’t noticed an increase in water pressure.
Durr said there was a noticeable difference in water levels after the trailer park had been shut down for the night. “We have not turned the Park off since last Friday night,” Durr said Tuesday.
Durr said the borough identified five leaks last week in other locations throughout the borough. “Currently our water storage situation is much better, not fixed, but much better,” Durr said. “We are still pumping from the Lake. This last rain did not bring the lake up measurably. We will need significant precipitation to bring the lake level up.”
Schnabel said the trailer park’s utilities present challenges when it comes to identifying and repairing the leaks. “The water and sewer lines and all of the utilities seem to be in kind of a jumbled trench,” Schnabel said. “It’s been leaking for decades, I believe.”
“The plumbing they’re finding is a mix match of electrical conduit and all kinds of different pipe and stuff,” retired water plant supervisor Scott Bradford said. “The power is buried all in the same ditch as the water and sewer. He’s got a quagmire of a mess there.”
This week, borough staff excavated a section of the water line that runs from Lily Lake to the water plant to better understand how they need to fix the hump in the line. Last week, staff learned that the pipe wasn’t constructed according to its design in 2010 when the line was installed.
When contractors encountered bedrock, they chose to install the pipe over the rock instead of blasting it and shooting the grade. With lake levels at an all-time low, there’s not enough pressure to push water through the hump in the line. Brad Maynard, public facilities director at the time, told the CVN last week they didn’t blast the rock because they never expected the water level at Lily Lake to get so low.
“After some excavation of the line, we have come to the conclusion the line will need to be lowered approximately four feet for about 500 feet, not just the one spot we initially thought that needed to be blasted,” Durr said. “This is a much bigger job than anticipated initially and the long-term fix will probably come later than sooner. But we are actively seeking funding for the fix.”
The Haines Borough Assembly Tuesday night discussed long-term solutions including finding additional water sources.