Pipeline burst still causing water problems

By Robbie Byrd

A pipeline that burst in July has caused concern and confusion for many residents nearby over their water service.

But hopefully, according to Walker County Special Utility District manager James Morrison, the “mess is finally over.”

The pipeline carrying jet fuel burst near Ashworth Road — just off Farm-to-Market Road 980 — in July, spewing hundreds of gallons of the semi-flammable liquid onto homes and into nearby Turkey Creek.

Problems arose a day after the rupture when clean-up crews broke a water main in the area.

“It just happened to pick a spot 100 yards from one of our (8-inch) water mains to burst (and) in the process of unloading track hoes for the clean-up they managed to back over one of our valve boxes to the main and broke it,” Morrison said. “I was concerned about (the fuel) having gotten into our line so we immediately shut it down completely.”

Explorer Pipeline Company, which owns the line, said the cleanup would take several weeks, yet crews are still working to clean up the contaminated creek and dig up contaminated soil in the area.

Tests verified by the Environmental Protection Agency and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality showed that the line was not contaminated with jet fuel.

“We pulled three different samples and the results said there was no jet fuel in the line,” Morrison said. “If there had, that certainly would have been our worst nightmare.”

But a state mandate calls that anytime a water line loses pressure, a boil water alert has to be issued.

“Anytime the water drops below 25 psi you have to issue a boil water notice because it’s state law,” Morrison said. “As long as the pipe has 25 psi it won’t let anything get into the line, but if it drops below there’s a risk for contaminents to get into the line.”

Further tests showed that no bacteriological contamination was found in the water line and the boil water notice was cancelled.

But the 70 or so customers weren’t done with their pipeline troubles.

As part of the clean up, Explorer contractors had to remove some 300 square yards of contaminated ground soil two to four feet deep — and that clean up disrupted the utility’s water main once again.

“That causes a whole new problem,” Morrison said. “If they unearth the soil from under and around the pipeline it will burst and look like a big bowl of spaghetti.”

The 110-psi water main relies on the pressure from the surrounding soil to help keep the PVC pipe in tact, Morrison said. Any disruption in the soil would have caused the line to burst at nearly every seam.

“So we had to create a bypass along the area where they were digging the soil,” Morrison said.

And, in doing so, the water dropped again below 25 psi, bringing with it yet another state-mandated boil water notice.

“Anytime you have call for a boil water notice, it’s a disaster,” Morrison said. “Everytime we have to do one there’s huge confusion.”

Morrison’s staff attempted to contact every customer in the area, as well as hung tags on their doors informing them of the notice and when the notice would be clear.

As well, representatives from Explorer went with Morrison to many of the homes to explain the safety issues and to offer free bottled water to the residents.

“There was never any contamination in the lines,” Morrison said. “We just had to follow the law and especially cautious.”

Morrison said that, with luck, there will be no further disruption to water customers in the area.

“I’m hoping we’re out of the woods after this boil water notice,” Morrison said. “This is all that’s going to be affected at this point.

“We were far enough away from where the leak happened that I felt fairly sure we weren’t going to have any problems, but in the interest of being overly cautious and making sure we aired on the side of being safe we had to inconvenience some customers,” Morrison said.

The 28-inch pipeline buried 3 feet below the ground runs from Port Arthur all the way to Chicago. Each day it carries 660,000 barrells — nealy 28 million gallons — of diesel and gasoline along with jet fuel.

Calls to Explorer’s headquarters in Tulsa, Okla. were not returned.

For more information, call the utility’s Huntsville office at (936) 295-4452.

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