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Water Tower Problem <br /> Brett and I went over to the water tower Tuesday afternoon(Jan. 201h <br /> to install the recirculating pump. That's when we discovered there was a <br /> cracked valve that was leaking water. Brett was able to slow the leak <br /> temporarily while he tried contacting a plumber with the special freezing <br /> equipment we needed to take care of the problem, without having to drain <br /> the tower. A couple plumbing companies referred him to John Anderson <br /> with Gull River Plumbing and Heating, Inc. out of Brainerd. He had the <br /> equipment we needed, but wasn't available until Thursday morning. He <br /> arrived around 10:00 a.m. and set up his equipment. He put a special sleeve <br /> around the line that we needed to freeze in order to isolate the valve. After <br /> freezing the line for about a half-hour, he felt it should be ready to remove <br /> the broken valve. Unfortunately, the line wasn't frozen solid enough to hold <br /> back the water. The water from the tower pushed out the ice and started <br /> shooting out of the 2-inch line. John tried a few times to get the new valve <br /> on, but there was far too much water pressure. After realizing this wasn't <br /> going to work, Brett told me to go to the water plant and shut off both high <br /> service pumps to stop the flow of water to the tower. When I got back, the <br /> guy was drenched from head to toe. I told him to go home and get some dry <br /> clothes, and when he came back he brought a brass pipe narrow enough to fit <br /> into the line so that he could screw on the new valve and shut off the flow. <br /> Prior to this, Brett and I were locating the gate valves to shut off the flow of <br /> water to the tower. It took some time because we had to find them and then <br /> use the torch to thaw them enough so we could open the covers and get the <br /> 8-ft. wrench in to shut the valves. Brett had went to Mark Forsberg and <br /> informed him of the situation at hand so Mark could notify the fire dept. to <br /> get mutual aid if there were to be a fire because we had lost water pressure. <br /> He also went to the school and informed Jim Oraskovich, the superintendent. <br /> He told him that they might need to close school due to our current situation. <br /> If we would have had to wait for the tower to drain, it could have been 4-5 <br /> hours before the problem was fixed, but fortunately the plumber was able to <br /> get the new valve on and we took care of the problem in about an hour. Later <br /> that day, Brett contacted both liaisons and explained what happened. <br /> The situation did get a little out of control, but it could have been a lot <br /> worse. We probably should have just drained the water tower and went from <br /> there, but we really felt that freezing the line to isolate the valve was the best <br /> way to approach the problem. Things just didn't go the way they were <br /> supposed to. Believe me, we'll drain the tower if something like this ever <br />