Information to help understand the water situation at SUD

Saturday January 20, 2024

To fully understand the issue, you have to understand the “plumbing” of the system.

The SUD wells are located near the water towers off of Hwy 20 and a well near the Fire Hall. All of these wells feed thru a treatment plant and are pumped into the Hwy 20 tanks.

Then, the water pressure from the elevated tanks, along with booster pumps, pushes water from those tanks thru the system and to the Freedom Rd tank.

The Freedom Rd tank and customers on the East side of Hwy 43 are also supplemented by the feed from LUS tie-in located in 3 Oaks.

When we had the combination of the LUS valve being shutoff AND the Hwy 20 tanks being low from over usage, we did not have a sufficient volume of water or the water pressure to feed the Freedom Rd tank or customers on the East side of Hwy 43.

Thru the day today (Saturday), the Hwy 20 tanks have been able to recover somewhat. They are still not to a high enough level to fully fill the Freedom Rd tank, but we are hopeful it will result in at least some water to customers on the East side of Hwy 43. Additionally, hopefully overnight, the usage will be down and we can also build up the tanks even more. All of the pumps have been running nonstop for the past several days. This should enable more households to have service on Sunday.

That being said, if you have been without water today - and find you do have water on Sunday morning, please continue to conserve as much as possible - or we will quickly diminish any gains and be right back where we were today.

Additionally, once the cold weather breaks this coming week, we can expect there will be leaks in water nains and households, as the ground thaws and shifts. If you notice any water main leaks, please notify our office ASAP - and repair any leaks on your side of the meter as well.

Thank you all for your understanding and patience as we work thru these issues.

Many have asked questions about sufficient water storage in our system.

Or current tanks are -
> Oldest Hwy 20 tank - 50,000 gallons
> Newer Hwy 20 tank - 100,000 gallons
> Freedom Rd tank - 250,000 gallons

On an average/typical day, our system uses 200,000 to 225,000 gallons.

On Thursday, January 18th, the system used 416,000 gallons.

This usage is due to several factors - including
> Leaks from broken pipes
> Customers running/dripping water
> More customers at home this week instead of being at work, resulting in more usage.