70,000-gallon water loss in Minturn caused by tiny hole in private service line
Town officials asking property owners to 'keep up to date' on the quality of their service lines
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
A pipe with a hole smaller than a Roosevelt dime caused a 70,000-gallon water leak in Minturn on Jan. 19, shutting down water service in the town.
Gusty Kanakis, a former Eagle River Water and Sanitation District worker who is now a Town Council member in Minturn, said a massive effort went into finding the leak.
The small hole shows just how much water can escape from a leaky pipe, said Town Manager Michelle Metteer, and draws attention to the fact that the maintenance of private water service lines is the responsibility of the property owner.
“We do ask that folks keep up to date on the quality of their service lines,” Metteer said.
If a service line is compromised and a leak is found in the town of Minturn, property owners are given five days to repair it, Metteer said.
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“And in the winter, that can be incredibly difficult to do,” Metteer said. “So we’re asking folks to start paying more attention to their service lines, a lot of them do not get addressed until after a leak has occurred, and that’s not the time to do it.”
Water service throughout the town was shut down for hours while crews worked to correct the issue. Water service was restored later that evening, but residences and businesses were instructed to boil water before drinking it in the days that followed.
The leak occurred on the Union Pacific Railroad property near the intersection of Main Street and Cemetery Road, on a water line that was no longer being used.
Similar water lines which are decades old and no longer being used should be removed completely rather than capped, Meteer said. Town officials plan to locate and update as many of those old lines as possible this summer.
