Almost 2 million gallons of water lost when valve leak turns into a geyser

This article was funded by LebTown donors as part of our Civic Impact Reporting Project.

The City of Lebanon Authority (CoLA) estimated about 1.7 million gallons of water were lost when a valve’s top on a 12-inch main blew off and released a 20- to 25-foot-high plume of water at the intersection of 12^th and Lehman streets last week.

All repairs were finished by 1 a.m. Saturday and the boil water advisory was lifted Monday morning, CoLA executive director Tom Deitzler said at Monday’s authority board meeting.

CoLA was notified about 6:45 a.m. Friday, May 8, that water was flowing out of the valve and onto the street. The bolts holding the valve’s top in place likely had rusted, allowing water to leak out of the main.

By 7:15 a.m., what had been a leak turned into a geyser when the valve’s top blew off into pieces.

“We’ve had issues with valves before but not to this extent,” said Brian DiScuillo, CoLA water systems director. “We were very fortunate with this break that no one got hurt, and there was no property damage.”

CoLA’s records indicate both the valve and the 12-inch water main were installed in 1965. The valve was between 3.5 and 4 feet below the road.

Repairs didn’t start until 9 a.m. as CoLA’s water crew first had to isolate the main with the broken valve. To do that, 10 other valves were closed, which shut off water to 88 residential properties in the area.

But with the valves closed, the amount of water spewing from the main began to lessen.

By 1 p.m. Friday, a new piece of pipe and a new valve had been installed, said DiScuillo in an interview after the board meeting. Then the hole dug to reach the pipe was filled in, the road patched and the area cleaned up.

But when the crew was ready to head out around 4:30 p.m., someone noticed more water bubbling out from the repaired area, DiScuillo said. The hole was dug again, and the crew discovered that a 4-inch main was cracked and leaking.

Complicating this repair was a UGI gas main resting on CoLA’s water main. The CoLA water crew had to wait for UGI to lift the gas main off of the water main so the later could be fixed.

“Had the water not surfaced into the geyser, significant damage could have occurred to the underground infrastructure including UGI gas mains, wastewater sewer mains, other water mains,” DiScuillo said.

In other business, Deitzler reported that CoLA is still waiting for fittings to arrive that are needed to install a meter on a blow-off pipe at Siegrist Reservoir. The meter will enable CoLA to have an accurate rather than an estimated measure of the amount of water being released from the dam. Installation should occur in June.

Deitzler also updated the board on CoLA’s lead service line inventory. The number of lines of unknown material — lead, copper, plastic or galvanized metal — continues to come down, he said.

Currently, there are 2,002 lines of unknown material on CoLA’s side or the portion of the service line from the main to the curb stop and 6,761 on the customer or property owner’s side.

The board approved payment of several construction invoices related to the wastewater treatment plant improvement project. They included:

• Two payments totaling $726.740.78, Pact Two LLC, general contractor;
• One payment of $88,977.35 to Garden Spot Electric, electric.

The board held an executive session after the meeting to discuss a possible land purchase. No action was taken.

The City of Lebanon Authority Board meets at 2311 Ridgeview Road, Lebanon, on the second Monday of each month at 3 p.m. The next meeting will be on June 8. These meetings are open to the public and do not require registration.