HomeMy Public PortalAboutLTC 137-2017 Water Main Break on Park DriveBAL HARBOUR
- VILLAGE -
OFFICE OF THE VILLAGE MANAGER
LETTER TO COUNCIL
No. 137-2017
To: Mayor Gabriel Groisman and Members of the Village Council
From: Jorge M. Gonzalez, Village Manager f
Date: August 4, 2017
Subject: Water Main Break on Park Drive
The purpose of this Letter to Council (LTC) is to advise you of the water main repair on Park
Drive.
On Friday, July 28, 2017 at approximately 6:00 p.m., The Village Parks and Public Spaces
Department received a notice of a large water leak at the rear property of 238 Park Drive.
Operations staff immediately drove to the site and identified high water pressure rising
through the ground at the easement behind the property. It was determined at the time
that it was impossible to make repairs without shutting down the 6 inch water main cast
iron pipe. Once it was determined which homes would be impacted for a water main
shutdown, the Village's Utility Compliance Officer wrote a Precautionary Boil Water Notice
with addresses identified prior to closing water valves per requirements of the Florida /
County Department of Health (DOH). The DOH requires that once a water main pipe
pressure drops below 20 pounds per square inch (psi), Precautionary Boil Water Notice
must be issued immediately including notifying the DOH Department. A key paragraph in
the notice must read: "AS A PRECAUTION, WE ADVISE THAT ALL WATER USED FOR
DRINKING, COOKING, MAKING ICE, BRUSHING TEETH, OR WASHING DISHES BE
BOILED. A ROLLING BOIL WATER OF ONE MINUTE IS SUFFICIENT. AS AN ALTERNATIVE
BOTTLED WATER MAY BE USED. "
Prior to closure of water valves, our Utility Compliance Officer along with Operations staff
handed out door-to-door notices to 21 homes as well as electronically via E -Blast and
WENS notifications. Once the hand out notices were completed at 7:30 p.m., the water
valves were closed in order to start repairs by Village staff and C & I Construction. At this
time, Utility Compliance Officer E -mailed the Precautionary Boil Water Notice to the
Director of Department of Health.
At approximately 8:45 p.m., after major and difficult excavation shovel work around two
FPL transformers, it was determined that the source of the break was a cracked water pipe
connection above the saddle to the water meter service. The entire pipe connection saddle
LTC 137-2017: Water Main Break on Park Drive
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was removed and replaced.
At 9:45 p.m., repairs were made and flushing procedures started. By 10:00 p.m., 20 homes
had their water service restored and by 11:30 p.m., all work was completed.
As previously mentioned, once a water main pressure drops below 20 psi, the DOH
requires that a County -certified lab conduct testing of three water bacteriological samples
in the area affected by the water main break. However, because County -certified labs are
closed during weekends, two consecutive samples were collected on Monday, July 31 and
Tuesday, August 1 to submit for testing. Normally, results are issued back in three days,
but in this case, we were notified of the results by the evening of Wednesday, August 2.
Immediately, our Utility Compliance Officer e -mailed the official lab results with an detailed
explanation of the pipe connection break findings to the Department of Health Director
for his review and approval. The DOH Director approved the rescission and lifting of the
Precautionary Boil Water Notice. Our Utility Compliance Officer immediately wrote a
Rescission of Precautionary Boil Water Notice and handed notices to all the properties that
were impacted. In addition, notices were also sent out electronically.
I want to thank Michael Alvarez, our Utility Compliance Officer, and our entire Public Works
team who worked very hard to contain and resolve this situation in such a professional and
efficient manner.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please feel free to contact me.
JMG/MA/RI/AC