Boil order issued

Pea Ridge water customers were under a boil order for almost three days after a 6-inch water line was broken on a construction site.

Ken Hayes, Pea Ridge Water/Sewer superintendent, said that a construction worker for Nabholz Construction drove a heavy piece of equipment over a water line on the Wal-Mart construction site. He said it was accidental and the break was due to previous weather conditions.

"As a result of the snow and ice melt, the ground was very soft, and when the heavy equipment drove over it, it broke," Hayes said. "It was shut down immediately and we repaired the leak without getting water back into the line."

Hayes explained that Pea Ridge Water is on a "loop" system and not a "branch" system, which is positive most of the time but means the point of the break can't be isolated.

"If it has been a dead end system, we could have shut it off only to the ones affected," he said.

Due to state regulations, Hayes said he notified the Arkansas Department of Health, which requires a precautionary boil order be issued if water was cut off to more than 150 residences. Hayes said more than 200 residences were affected. He said there are more than 2,400 customers on Pea Ridge Water.

"Man, you're jumping through hoops," Hayes said the Health Department official told him, explaining that he was doing more than was required but preferred to be cautious.

Hayes explained that two factors constantly protect the water quality -- chlorine in the water and good water pressure. The chlorine kills bacteria and the high water pressure prevents a leak from entering the system. "If you don't have good water pressure, ground water can enter the system through any leak," he explained.

"They (Nabholz) didn't want this. We didn't want this," Hayes said, adding that Nabholz officials have been extremely cooperative.

Hayes said a set of water samples was taken Monday morning and delivered to Beaver Water District for testing. He said the test takes 22 hours to run and he should know the results by noon Tuesday. He said he had two choices, take the water sample to the State Health Department office in Little Rock or use Beaver Water District. He selected the quicker option, he said.

Hayes explained that this will be a water loss for the city, but employees will try to "quantify the loss" and bill Nabholz for the costs.

"After a leak like this, we sit down and calculate the costs, it will be passed on to the contractor," Hayes said.

In the nine years Hayes has been superintendent of Pea Ridge Water, he said there were two other occasion for a boil order to be issued, the last of which was about eight and a half years ago when there was "a power outage at Beard's pit" and the water tank emptied. "With the technology now, that won't happen," Hayes said.

Hayes said as soon as he was notified of the water line break, he notified his employees and had an emergency alert sent through Benton County Alert.