By: Lydia Crawley
The Parsons Advocate
The recent cold snap has created ice jams in the river that are creating problems for the Parsons Water Department. Parsons Water Department Director Red Lipscomb said that the ice jams have been clogging the raw water intake due to the low levels of the river and shutting down incoming water to the City’s system.
On Tuesday, January, 20th, the raw water intake completely shut down from icing on the river, Lipscomb said. City crews were able to restore water flow by evening, he said. The system was down for about three and half to four hours in total.
“Today, we had the raw water intake shut down. The whole river is iced over completely, but all the water coming down the stream is full of slush and ice that is blocking our intake off and there is nothing we could do today, but shut down,” Lipscomb said.
From 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Lipscomb said the intake slushed up 27 times, an average of every six minutes. Due to the strain on the pumps, the decision was made to shut down and give the pumps a rest.
“I was just lucky that we were able to get up and running by this evening and get the tank full again,” Lipscomb said.
The river was frozen up as far as around the bend to Kingsford, Lipscomb said. He anticipated conditions to only get worse with the cold weather projected to come to the area following the winter storm over the weekend. Low water levels in the river are also contributing to intake issues, according to Lipscomb.
Other dangers to the water supply may come in the form of home water lines, Lipscomb said. Unprotected water lines can freeze and break leading to water leaks. Lipscomb recommends having water lines adequately covered and protected, as well as letting water run during cold to prevent freezing.
“The water coming down the river, it was sketchy today,” Lipscomb said. “If the temperatures keep falling and warm up and thaw, then freeze again and get below zero again, we could have a situation.”
Last year, Lipscomb said that a similar situation happened, causing the ice to break off and block the intake overnight. He said it is only a matter of time before it happens again.
Parsons does have the Emergency interconnector with Hamrick that was completed this fall. Currently, it is functional, Lipscomb said. However, Hamrick were have problems from the cold, as well on Tuesday, the 20th as well, he said.
“Hamrick is having issues today, as well. They’ve been having slush up issues all day yesterday,” Lipscomb said.
As long as the slush and ice continues to move down the river, crews are able to work with the water flow, Lipscomb said. It is when the flow stops, that the intake will no longer be able to feed water at all, he said.
“If this weather persists like this, it may come down to having to take drastic measures,” Lipscomb said.
