Forsyth water break fixed, but conservation still needed

The city of Forsyth narrowly averted a water crisis Sunday when a broken main was repaired just before the city's water stores would have ran out.

However, residents are asked to continue to limit water usage until Monday evening so that the towers can refill.

Matt Perry, the Monroe County Emergency Management Agency director, said shortly after 2 p.m. that the break had been fixed and the towers were refilling.

The city's water had been coming from the towers since the break Saturday following heavy rain that shifted the ground around the 16-inch pipe. The pipe is the sole source of water from the reservoir to the treatment plant.

After the fix, Perry said water was successfully transported through the pipe to the water plant and treated.

Conservation is still urged because the towers have to refill slowly. Perry said the towers were almost depleted when the fix was made and water started getting to the plant again.

Had the water ran out, it would have required residents to boil water for about a day or two, at least. That's because the low pressure could have caused contaminants to get into the water. It would have taken at least a day for test results to come back, and had contaminants been detected, then boiling might have been needed for a few more days.

"Not losing pressure was the key, and the only way for us to do that was through all the conservation," Perry said.

Residents are asked to try to use as little water as possible through about 7 p.m. Monday. Perry said the water towers have to be refilled slowly so as not to stress the temporary repair on the pipe.

Perry said residents throughout the city were cooperative and that water usage was very low since they were urged to conserve on Saturday.

The break was at the city reservoir on Ga. 42 South.

Forsyth Mayor Eric Wilson said he appreciated the cooperation of the residents.

"Our citizens did a great job of conserving water in the last 24 hours and without those efforts, we would not have been able to make it," he said. "We appreciate everyone understanding the gravity of the situation."

He also said plans are in place to prevent such an occurrence in the future. The pipe that broke runs into a creek and failed because of the creek-bank erosion during the rain, Wilson said. The city plans to elevate the pipe over the creek to prevent that from happening again.

Also, the city had recently reached an agreement with the county to hook on to its system as a backup. Wilson said the city will go forward with that, so that in the future if there is such a failure it will only require switching over temporarily to the county system.

Had the fix not been made in time, the city was prepared to go forward with an emergency plan that would have included trucking in water to large users such as Burruss Correctional Training Center, which houses 800 state prisoners.

This story was originally published April 3, 2016 at 3:27 PM with the headline "Forsyth water break fixed, but conservation still needed ."