December 18, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
The DeKalb Utility District water treatment plant has been down since Saturday but DUD customers haven’t noticed because the water has kept flowing thanks to the City of Smithville.
According to DUD Manager Jon Foutch, a problem was discovered last weekend at the DUD intake facility near the lake where a joint pulled apart from a water pipe causing a disruption in service.
“It’s a pipe coming out of the intake in the edge of the building and what we have found is that the pipe on the joint separated. It just pushed apart. We’ve had to remove some concrete just inside the building to get down to it to make the repair but until we complete it we can’t get any water to the plant to treat,” Foutch told WJLE.
The DUD’s engineers and water plant construction team have been brought in for consultation and work on fixing the problem.
Before the plant was shut down, DUD’s water connections with the City of Smithville were reactivated under a water purchase agreement between the two entities.
“The city has been real good to work with us. We turned them (DUD water connections with the city) back on to keep the water flowing and no one (DUD water customer) knew any difference,” said Foutch.
Under the water purchase agreement adopted by the City and DUD in the fall of 2017, each of the utilities may purchase water from the other in times of need. The city maintains eight existing master meters that can service both utilities.
The DeKalb Utility District serves 5,300 customers in either all or portions of DeKalb, Smith, Cannon, and Wilson counties.