The extent of damage done to a city water line in the Kettle River in late-May is now known.
“We found that there was a hole approximately (30 cm by 13 cm) in it,” said Grand Forks Fire Chief Blair Macgregor.
“Obviously something hit the pipe and we have de-commissioned the pipe. There’re two pipes that cross the river and we are no longer using the broken one.”
Macgregor also said that the city doesn’t plan on repairing the pipe and estimated it would’ve cost $500,000 to repair.
“We still have two river crossings in separate areas and we have ample flow in the area,” explained Grand Forks’ fire chief.
“We are going to have to do one reconnection to (Interfor’s) sawmill to add a secondary connection to them but overall we felt that the crossing that was damaged was too costly to repair and since we’ve already got the other crossings in place, it was something that we felt we would be OK without at this point in time.”
Macgregor also said that there will be a cost to reconnect the line, although he didn’t have a figure available.
The reconnection will take place in an area between the river and the sawmill.
During high water back in late-May a major leak was detected and after the city traced the problem to the aforementioned line, water was shut off.
Due to the high water level at the time, the city was not able to investigate the damage until recently when water was at a safer level.
There were reports of dirty water throughout the city during the May incident and there were concerns that water could’ve been contaminated but after testing, water was deemed safe to drink.