Thank you everyone for your patience and understanding while we work to troubleshoot the Village’s water system.

When we turned the water off this afternoon after the storm at 2:20 p.m. the Village pumped just over 4,000 gallons per hour, down from 6,300 gallons per hour through 6 p.m. Wednesday. This is the largest drop we have seen since taking data points.

When we shut the water off today at 2:20 p.m., we shut off the entire Village except for Cross, Benacerraf, and Skibeli. During the shut-off period, the Village pumped ZERO gallons for a three-hour period. This is good news as it indicates the usage is closer to homes rather than within the Village system itself. In other words, there is a greater likelihood, the higher usage is not due to leaks between the tank and the curb stops.

Due to the increase in use per day since May (29,000 gallons per day in June, 48,000 gallons per day in July and 165,000 gallons per day in August as measured through the 15th) the data indicate an increase in use as residents came out for the summer and turned their systems on. A sudden leak would show a large daily spike that I have not seen although many small leaks (or one leak getting worse every day) would increase pumpage over a longer period. This is the same basic rate of increase in use during the 2016 period (May through July). Based on my meter reading, regular household usage should not be more than 10,000 gallons per day.

We appreciate the efforts everyone made to halt irrigation, but not everyone was able to comply. Most of the systems start in the early morning many at the same time, and continue throughout the day at regular intervals. It is possible that a sudden use of just two or three irrigation systems hooked up to Village water starting at the same time in the morning dropped the tank water level at a rate where the pump could not keep up. When the systems turned themselves off, the pump had to keep working to refill the tank (to 100,000 gallons) for several hours. Even when we shut zones off, the pump was still working to refill itself from the morning’s use causing a lag effect.

It is essential we halt all automated irrigation immediately. No one can be certain they are hooked up to their own well or not. Until we can make a determination that your system is indeed on its own well without an interconnect between the irrigation system and the household system, the Village cannot afford the risk to its water system by permitting automated irrigation.

I will discuss a way to let you know when your irrigation system is on with the Trustees—to make sure you turn it off immediately.

Hap will switch to Well #1 if he hasn’t already to lower the chlorides while we continue to take measurements.

There are several alternatives we can review to improve water quality from Well #2 including drilling a new 4-inch well adjacent to the existing one but not as deep. The deeper the well the greater the chance of salt water intrusion.

We will check for leaks—there may indeed be several—as we want to make sure our system is in the best shape possible before the new tank installation that may be by next spring. I will let you know the details and what we will need to do from the leak detection firm when I receive them.

Best,

John T. Colby Jr.
Mayor, VDH