Water main bursts, floods street

An 8-inch water pipe burst underground Monday night, flooding the south end of La Conner’s Third Street near Pioneer Park and leaving Shelter Bay faucets dry.

Witnesses said the blowout occurred at around 8:30 p.m. The town’s Public Works crew spent the rest of the night digging up the street to replace a section of pipe and restore service to residents in Shelter Bay.

The water was back on before noon, though some residents reported lower pressure and murky water in the pipes, likely due to debris in the lines.

La Conner resident Madison Smith said she was walking her dog along Sherman Street near the La Conner boat launch, when she heard what sounded like cracking pavement followed by a sudden gush of water flowing into the street. The break in the line occurred in front of an industrial building on Sherman just west of the intersection of S. Third Street.

She ran to the Third Street home of Julie Gregory, who called 911. “Madison came knocking on my door; she said that there’s a flood,” Gregory said. “By that time, the flooding was down the whole street, down to the boat launch area.”

In just a matter of minutes, the water was ankle deep on Sherman Street from the boat launch to Third Street, where it flooded the intersection, nearby yards, garages and crawl spaces under homes.

Undaunted, the Public Works crew waded in, located the shutoff valves and slowed the quick-moving water stream to a trickle.

The pipe was the one that supplies water to Shelter Bay, which purchases water from the town wholesale.

Since the break was several feet underground, the water was pushing up through cracks in the pavement, initially causing concern that the roadway had been undermined.

However, the road is unharmed, Doyle said.

The town workers managed to locate the break in the pipe and brought in an excavator to dig it up and a pump to keep the water from running back into the hole from the saturated soil. A section of pipe and a nearby fire hydrant were replaced.

Doyle said the water line was asbestos clay pipe, which was used a lot back in the 1970s and early 1980s. The town has most of the old pipes scheduled for replacement. However, this section was one of the “newer” old pipes, and there are other bigger and older lines at the top of the replacement priority list.

“Water leaks happen,” Doyle said. “That’s the nature of an ageing infrastructure.” And preventing big blowouts like Monday’s is the reason the town has been setting money aside for scheduled replacements.

A sudden blowout is a setback. Fixing a leak the size of Monday’s could cost as much as $10,000. Besides the materials, equipment and road repairs, “You had four guys working overtime all night long,” Doyle said.