Water Leaks Found, Repaired: City Water Flow Returns

Boil Water Advisory Still In Effect

City workers and personnel work to repair one of the water leaks that disrupted water service for many city residents.

Darren Doyle, story and photos:
Two different water leaks were finally located and repaired over the last day-and-a-half in the City of Brownsville; leaks that disrupted service and closed schools on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Brownsville residents began to notice no or very little pressure on Monday night around 7:30PM. It was soon discovered there was a major line break somewhere as the city's 200,000 gallon reservoir tank was emptied in just a couple of hours. However, city officials were stumped because there was no sign of water flowing in the roadways, in yards, or pooling anywhere else, which is the first obvious sign of a leak, especially one that large.

Workers attempted tracking down water lines throughout the late hours of Monday into the predawn hours of Tuesday; still, no luck and very few city water customers were left without some sort of disruption of their water service.

Local schools were cancelled due to the Edmonson County 5/6 Center being completely out of water and ECHS and ECMS did not have enough water to operate.

Mayor Jerry Meredith said the first major break was discovered last night around 7PM on Mohawk Street.

"There was a tree root that had pushed the line up and broke it," he said. "The water was able to run into a drainage tile under the road, which carried it out to the woods. That's why no one could see it."

Mohawk Street runs into Carder Street just past Oak Hill Road. The elevation drops drastically in that area.

Meredith said the break was repaired by midnight; however, the reservoir tank was still not filling at the normal rate, which meant there was a problem elsewhere. Through more line tracing, the other leak was discovered on B Street, which is off of Vincent Street, behind the EC 5/6 Center and baseball field. Water was coming out of the pavement in the street.

Water bubbling out of the pavement on B Street in Brownsville.

Today, workers spent the day repairing the line and by around 2PM, water was flowing properly back into the city and filling the reservoir at regular pace.

"The city will remain under a boil water advisory for probably a day or two," the mayor said.

The advisory will affect the city residents south of the Green River, only. Those on county water are not affected, nor are any city residents on the north side of the river.

Edmonson County Schools announced this afternoon that school will be back in session on Thursday, November 4th.