Water is one of those things that you don’t think about unless you don’t have it, and water was on the minds of Trenton Municipal Utilities water customers Monday night after a valve failed to open on the Iowa Boulevard water tower.
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Water is one of those things that you don’t think about unless you don’t have it, and water was on the minds of Trenton Municipal Utilities water customers Monday night after a valve failed to open on the Iowa Boulevard water tower.
Trenton water customers and many rural water district customers were without water pressure for several hours Monday night when the valve did not open and caused the city’s water system to lose pressure. City employees and a former TMU employee were able to engineer around the problem and restore water to the system. Roger Sullivan, chief water plant operator for Trenton Municipal Utilities, said maintenance had been scheduled on the part that failed and until that work can be completed, the valve will be left on to avoid another problem.
Sullivan said the first call came into the water plant at about 5:36 p.m., with a customer complaining of low water pressure. From there, he said, the calls were steady for a few hours.
“Within about five minutes, the phone was ringing non-stop and we finally had to take it off the hook for a few minutes. Then the mayor showed up and said he would man the phones for us and the calls kept coming in for about two and a half hours,” he said.
Sullivan said the problem was corrected around 9 p.m. and at that time the rural water district was notified they could begin flushing their system. Customers in the lower elevations of town saw an increase in water pressure between 8:30 and 9 p.m., while customers in other areas such as Lake Trenton saw their pressure increase later in the evening.
While there was no break in the water mains and the problem was actually with the pressure, a boil order has been issued until further notice. TMU Controller Teresa Price said the Department of Natural Resources requires that a boil order be issued in case bacteria or other contaminants infiltrated the water supply. Mrs. Price said water samples have been sent in for testing and it will likely be early Wednesday afternoon before the results are back.
In the meantime, residents have made a run on bottled water at Trenton stores and Trenton Coca-Cola Bottling Co. today took bottled water to Rissler Elementary School, Adams Middle School and Trenton High School for use by students and staff.
At Wright Memorial Hospital, maintenance staff were called in to assist the regular staff in providing an alternate source of water. According to information provided by the hospital, the facility also obtained bottled water from Trenton Coca-Cola and it is being used for patient care, food preparation, drinking, etc., in addition to abiding by the order to boil water.
Local restaurants have also been using bottled water or boiling water needed for use in the preparation of food.
Trenton Home Foods has been forced to halt production until the water supply has been declared safe.