By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Bronson is knee-deep in public water system problems.
Two big water main breaks and a leaky water main under a sidewalk in the past couple of weeks have created headaches for the town and its residents.
Town Manager Susan Beaudet estimated six water main breaks have occurred since she took over as the city’s chief administrator a year ago. The town is trying to get a handle on it.
Town officials concede many water mains and valves aren’t shown on grid maps of the water system. The town has asked the Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project to help public works employees locate hidden pipes. SERCAP is volunteering its services.
Beaudet told the town council Monday that SERCAP has recommended using ground-penetrating radar to locate pipes and she said the Florida Rural Water Association endorsed that approach.
Meanwhile, the town ended its boil water notice Tuesday after the big water main break on Jan. 19 that left the town without water for about six hours over a two-day period.
The water main ruptured along US 27A. It was caused by contractors moving earth for the Hardees/Jiffy Store project. It was the second water main to be broken at the worksite. The first water main was ruptured about a week to two weeks earlier along State Road 24.
Beaudet said the town is being charged $5,000 for repairs to the 4-inch asbestos water main along U.S. 27A that ruptured last week. Ellis Environmental Group did the work. The water main was very old and no longer served homes or businesses but was charged and under pressure when a backhoe ruptured the pipe.
Beaudet said the town plans to pass the repair bill along to the contractor that broke the pipe.
“They broke it. We’re not going to pay it,” she said.
Oelrich Construction is building the commercial project for Hudson Foods. The company was contacted for comment Tuesday but didn’t return the phone call.
Opposing Claims
Construction workers at the site said they weren’t told about the asbestos pipe before they accidentally breached it while digging along U.S. 27A. They said it wasn’t on water system grid maps and it was hidden from view.
Town officials dispute that claim. They said Public Works Director Curtis Stacy sprayed blue paint on the ground to mark the water main’s location in advance of the digging, and he visited the construction site on the morning before the accident to warn construction workers about the pipe. He saw bulldozers operating at the site and wanted to give a heads-up to the construction crew.
The fact that the pipe was made of asbestos and was no longer in use, but was fully charged with pressurized water, raises questions. Why wasn’t the aging pipe ever removed from the ground or capped if the town knew of its location? Why was it still connected to the town’s water tower, given the fact that it was no longer hooked to any homes or businesses?
Public works officials were forced to turn off a valve to shut down water at the site, but the valve also turned off the water to most of the town in the process. The town doesn’t have water shutoff valves on every block to isolate water breaks and prevent widespread shutdowns.
The site of the ruptured asbestos pipe was very close to where an old house once stood along US 27A. The two-story house stood adjacent to the old McKenzie’s 4-Corner’s Bar, site of the future Hardees/Jiffy store complex. Construction workers indicated there was more than one pipe and meter at the spot where they ran into problems, but town officials said the water main connected to the old house had been capped off and the pipe was no longer charged with water after the house was torn down.
Leaking Water Main
In a separate but related matter, the town council voted Tuesday to pay a contractor $1,450 to replace two sections of a county sidewalk that were removed to fix a leaking water main under the concrete walkway.
Stacy said the two sections of the sidewalk had to be removed to gain access to the leaking pipe.
The sidewalk was constructed several years ago using a state grant awarded to the Levy County Commission. The sidewalk was built to give school children a walkway to reach Court Street. Bronson Elementary School is on the same side of County Road 32B as the sidewalk. Bronson Middle High School is on the opposite side. The water main break was directly in front of the elementary school.
County Coordinator Wilbur Dean said the county knew the sidewalk was being constructed over a water main on the south side of the road, but he said it wasn’t a secret. When the state chose the south side of the road for the sidewalk, the county researched the site for existing utilities and learned about the water main. Flags were stuck in the ground for weeks in advance outlining where the sidewalk would be constructed. He said he doesn’t recall talking to Bronson officials about the water main.
Dean said he talked to a city councilman Tuesday and suggested the city take a different approach to remove a portion of the sidewalk for water main repairs in the future. He said there is a way to remove less concrete to reach the leaking water main. The town removed about 18 feet of concrete.
“Our thing is the future. They probably need to do a cut in the sidewalk as close as they can to where they need to get to the leaking pipe so they don’t have to cut as much,” he said. “You’re better off doing a cut as small as you can get away with, then form it back and pour it.”
Dean said conflicts between utilities built in road rights-of-way are nothing new.
“It’s unfortunate, but it’s the cost of doing business,” he said.
Regarding the town’s ongoing issues with hidden water mains, Dean said he remembers years ago when a house owned by his family on State Road 24 was found to have a pipe connected to a city water main. The pipe was discovered when companies were installing cable.
“It didn’t show up anywhere. There was no meter to it and nobody was using it,” Dean said.
—————————-
Town of Bronson Regular Meeting January 24, 2022; Posted January 25, 2022
