Scott City lifts boil water order

A boil water order in Scott City was lifted Wednesday morning after the city spent the holiday weekend and the beginning of the week providing water on its reserve system.

Scott City Public Works director Jack Rasnic said a 12-inch pipe at the city's water treatment plant in the Scott City industrial park broke Saturday, requiring the city to switch from that water supply to its reserve supply. The boil water order was issued as a precaution, Rasnic said, because the city wasn't sure if the water coming from the backup system was safe for drinking. Wednesday morning test results came back showing that water was safe to drink, so the order was lifted, he said.

Rasnic said the plumbing break may have been caused by ground settling due to the current drought conditions. Public works personnel worked 28 hours straight to correct the problem, he said, and precautions have been taken to make sure such a problem won't occur again.

About $6,000 in materials were required to fix the break, Rasnic said, but he couldn't specify the costs in labor Wednesday afternoon because he was on-site supervising crews fixing the problem.

Rasnic said the city police department notified city residents to boil their water and try to conserve water by contacting radio and TV stations Saturday.

Scott City's water treatment facility has only operated since July 2004, when it was built by voter-approved bond money to replace the city's old well system. Before the new plant Scott City used a system of five deep wells to provide water, a system which struggled to meet consumption demands, especially in dry weather.

During high demand, orders like the one issued over the weekend were triggered, as the wells would pump out murky water when running too close to capacity.

The old well system pumped about 500 gallons per minute, while the new plant pumps around 800 gallons per minute, Rasnic said.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182