In the first three months of the year, the municipality has already had to deal with five waterline repairs, nearly matching the total number of repairs it responded to last year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 a little concerning that these things happened earlier than they have in the past and we鈥檙e hopeful we don鈥檛 have too many more of them,鈥� said Bruce Thompson, director of operations for the municipality.
He said last year the municipality responded to five or six repairs throughout the entire year.
So far this year, the five repairs have cost the municipality $125,000, depleting听 its annual water budget for contracted services and it may have to rely on its reserves to pay for any future repairs.
鈥淲e want people to be aware that this is the point we鈥檙e currently at, we don鈥檛 want it to be a surprise at the end of the year,鈥� said Thompson, adding every municipality has aging infrastructure and regularly has to repair broken waterlines and sewers.
In Jasper, some areas of town have underground infrastructure that is more than 100 years old.
Thompson said he鈥檚 unsure why there have been so many repairs so far this year, but suggested it might be because spring has come earlier than usual.
The two biggest repairs occurred in the S-Block area of town and behind Snowdome Coffee Bar.
In the S-Block area, it took the municipality nearly two weeks before it could locate the source of the leak.
According to Thompson, part of the challenge is Jasper鈥檚 geology.
鈥淭ypically the spring is when the ground is shifting and you end up getting some leaks,鈥� explained Thompson.
鈥淭he thing that鈥檚 a little different for Jasper, or areas like Jasper where the geology is glacial till and there is ice on the surface, the leak isn鈥檛 always apparent for some time,鈥� said Thompson, explaining the water often seeps back into the ground rather than collecting on the surface.
To get around that issue, water operators rely on what鈥檚 called a Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) system, which provides real-time data about the water levels and chlorine levels in town.
In this case, employees noticed the demand for water didn鈥檛 decrease as quickly as it should have after the Christmas holidays, raising the possibility that there was a leak somewhere in the system.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really important to know your system and what the daily and seasonal changes are so that you have a feel for it,鈥� explained Thompson.
The first step was to figure out if there was something unusual going on in town that would have required a lot of water, such as a hotel filling its pool.
Once all of the possibilities were ruled out, operators started looking around town for a leak, first checking obvious locations before checking some of the more remote areas.
After nearly two weeks and no signs of the leak, the municipality considered sending out a press release asking for the public鈥檚 assistance in locating the leak.
As luck would have it, around that time, a truck backed up over some ice, breaking through and exposing the leak.
Within hours, the municipality was able to localize the leak at the far end of the industrial park and shut off water to that section of the line.
Fortunately, that area of town has a loop system, which means the water disruption didn鈥檛 affect businesses in the area.
Before workers could expose the damaged water pipe, the ground first needed to be thawed using the town鈥檚 frost hog. This took about five or six days.
Once the ground was soft enough to dig, workers replaced the damaged piece with a new 10-foot section of pressurized water pipe before restoring service to the line.
鈥淲e don鈥檛 know exactly what we鈥檙e up against until we excavate, so we are prepared for the worst and hope for the best,鈥� said Thompson.
The other big repair so far this year was behind Snowdome Coffee Bar. It was originally a sewer blockage, but after workers thawed out the area and exposed the sewer they discovered a nearby waterline was also leaking.
Recognizing that the area is an important artery for deliveries, the municipality worked with local businesses to minimize the disruption.
The other three water repairs include damaged waterlines near Juniper Street and Geikie Street, Bonhomme Street and Aspen Crescent, as well as a leak behind Scoops and Loops.
鈥淭he difficulty with leak detection is there is no way to conclusively determine if there is a leak in any specific area because there鈥檚 always flow happening,鈥� said Thompson.
鈥淲e鈥檙e trying to find a way to get better at situations like this, but I don鈥檛 know that there is a silver bullet.鈥�
In the meantime, the town will continue to rely on the knowledge of its water operators and its SCADA system.
Paul Clarke [email protected]
