Bismarck Tribune - Bismarck News - Garrison runs out of drinking water

Garrison runs out of drinking water

Mar 05, 2004 - 23:18:23 CST

By LAUREN DONOVAN, Bismarck Tribune

GARRISON -- Thursday, Garrison was worried about getting a boat on the water.

Friday, the town was worried about getting a drink of water.

The town's intake system in Lake Sakakawea quit Thursday and by nightfall, the town's two water towers were officially drained dry.

An old well was started up Friday and most residents were getting water for sinks, toilets and showers. A boil order for consumed water is in effect, until the State Health Department says otherwise.

More ominous are problems with the city's water intake, which abruptly quit delivering water to the city's water treatment plant.

The record low lake level might be the cause, but until they lost water at their home taps, people were mainly worried about summer recreation.

With the Red Cross giving away water and portable toilets set up at the city shop Friday, the situation was cast in a whole new light.

Garrison has been a strong voice in advocating for a high lake level to sustain summer visitation and fishing.

City Councilman Chad Rensch said it's ironic to have the real issue come down to one of survival.

Public bathrooms all over town had "Closed" signs on the doors and people were making quips about yellow snow banks.

At least one restaurant was shuttered up and the owner of another had run up to Minot to purchase water and was serving food on paper plates.

While Kadrmas, Lee and Jackson engineers worked out at the snow and ice covered lake, city officials were back at city hall, working on a temporary solution so that people would have water in the meantime.

Another 600 rural residents who normally get water from town can't be served by the well and will be without water until the main system is fixed.

It wasn't immediately clear why Garrison's system quit delivering water since it's still in about 35 feet of water, said engineer Dale Christensen.

"This has never happened before," said Christensen. "We just don't know until we take a look."

Divers who went down Friday afternoon couldn't find anything wrong at the intake, located about 500 yards past the shoreline.

Rensch said it's possible the intake -- a siphon system driven by head pressure from the lake itself -- simply may not work as designed at this lake level.

The lake went below its former record low last week and is now at 1,814.2 feet elevation.

Other possible culprits are ice, silt, crushed pipe or mechanical problems.

A contractor will examine the intake pipeline today.

Rensch said the city may have to bypass its intake and pump water directly from the lake, but even that probably couldn't be done until Monday.

"It's a major catastrophe when you don't have water," Rensch said.

He said the city will restore water at any cost and hope for help from the state or federal government.

Out in front of city hall, the American Red Cross was handing out bottled water and food.

Nine-year-old Andrew Summers got a bottle of water and a sweet roll from a Red Cross worker and said he was happy to have a day off from school.

School closed Friday because of the lack of water.

Brian Sailer, owner of the Four Seasons Restaurant on Main Street, said he doesn't expect an easy fix.

"It's not going to be a temporary problem as long as the lake keeps receding," he said.

Sailer said if the city's intake failed because there's not enough water to provide the necessary pressure, blame goes to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages the lake.

"The (corps) boys in Omaha (Neb.) need some help," he said.

Over at the Cenex station, manager Paul Schlichting likened the situation to an old-fashioned blizzard.

"You don't know how much you're gonna get or how long it's going to last," he said. "We just have to do the best we can."

This is the third North Dakota city to experience water problems since fall. Both others were directly related to the falling lake level.

Fort Yates temporarily lost water from Lake Oahe when the intake silted over in November. The city of Parshall's intake in Lake Sakakawea required an emergency extension out to deeper water to prevent it from freezing over now that it's in far shallower water than normal.

In light of that, Garrison did check their engineers this fall, but couldn't anticipate this situation, especially with their intake down at 1,775 feet elevation.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)

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Comments

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