LIMESTONE COUNTY, Ala. — Recent icy weather conditions in limestone county left some residents in an uproar after experiencing things like no water and a 'boil water notice'. FOX54 spoke with the Limestone County Water Authority about what led to these issues.
Limestone Water Authority CEO Daryl Williamson said the amount of leaks exceeded the capacity in certain areas of their system. "About 20% of our customer base actually had leaks through that period of time. Predominantly we were affected around the Ardmore area. Some other areas had a little bit of low pressure, but the Ardmore areas were really hit hard."
That eventually led to a boil water notice for some Ardmore residents. "Any time a water system, water pressure drops below 20 pounds of pressure, we have to issue a boil notice because what can happen is groundwater could possibly seep into the pipes, and so you want to make sure that consumers are aware of that."
Williamson also believes the lack of winterization is what drove the low pressure issues. "So what did we see? We saw hosepipes still hooked up to hose bibs on the outside of the houses. We saw a large number of folks running their faucet. The proper thing is to drip a faucet. You drip the furthest faucet away from your water meter. The proper drip should be about a gallon an hour."
So what is being done to prevent this in the future? "Part of what we're doing as the water utility, we're already about two years into a water plant project. those are multi-year projects. It takes a long time to get those things done, but we are working through the permitting process and design process to double the capacity of the plant that serves north of highway 72."
They are also working through a major transmission line projects. "To move that water that we get to produce into those affected areas like Ardmore. And so we've got a couple of things that we've been working on for the last couple of years, and it just unfortunately, it takes a long time to get those big projects done."