The winter that won't be forgotten
Posted on Friday, Feb. 14, 2014 at 9:09 am
Going without
It's easy to take it for granted – turn on the tap, out comes water. But for dozens of people in Madison, the water has stopped.
"You can't flush the toilets, you can't wash the dishes, you can't wash clothes...brush your teeth, take a shower, all those things," says Ken Bavery, who lives on a cul-de-sac on Madison's east side.
Bavery has a frozen service lateral, which means that water in the pipe running from the main under the street to his home is frozen solid. He's been waiting for two days for a Madison Water Utility crew to come and thaw it out, but he's one of many customers on a growing list – dozens of frozen service calls are coming in every day. During most winters, it's just a handful. But this isn't most winters.
"It started brutal before Thanksgiving, and it just hasn't let up," Bavery says. "We think it's a heat wave when it gets up to 15 degrees!"
The problem for Bavery and so many others is an ever-deepening frost line caused by night after night of brutally cold temperatures in Madison. On cul-de-sacs and dead end streets where the water mains connect to just a handful of houses, it can spell trouble.
"There's just not enough water being turned over to keep it flowing," says utility hydrant inspector Brad Rothenburger. "The water just sits there and gets colder and colder and colder."
It's Rothenburger's job to check the water temperature at hydrants on at-risk streets like Bavery's. On this day, the news isn't good. Water comes out of the hydrant at just 30.6 degrees.
"The water's very cold. I'm very concerned," he says.
Waiting for the thaw
Frozen services are the latest headache in what's been a brutal winter. Madison Water Utility repaired 92 main breaks in January alone, largely due to the extreme cold and plunging frost line. The utility also pulled 36 cracked or broken water meters from customers' homes – the most of any month in at least the last decade. And nearly 200 customers have reported frozen laterals since January 1st.
"There have been a lot of services freezing this year because the frost is down so deep," Rothenburg says, noting that main repair crews have reported the frost line at around 6 feet deep. Unfortunately, a real thaw could be weeks away.
"Just because the air temperature is warm doesn't mean the ground's warm. When it thaws, it thaws from the top down, so it's gonna be a while."
Remembering 1977
This winter may be bad, but so far, it's not the worst. That honor may go to the winter of 1976-77, when thousands of Madisonians went days without water. Some 372 laterals froze in January and February of that year, as did large sections of water main, some bursting because of the pressure. For dozens of extreme cases, the utility was forced to set up emergency garden hose connections running from house to house to provide water. Customers used those connections for 3 months until pipes finally began to thaw in April.
For Bavery, the inconvenience of being without water turns out to be short-lived. A Madison Water Utility crew arrives Monday night, and within a couple of hours, the water is running.
"It's like Christmas all over again!" he laughs.
Bavery and other customers in high-risk areas have been notified directly by the utility to run a pencil-thin stream of water to help keep services from freezing. Usually it helps, but sometimes services freeze anyway. And it's anyone's guess as to when all the freezing might finally stop. According to Rothenburger, it could take weeks of warm temperatures to thaw the deepest frozen ground.
"I hoping it'll be thawed out by May or June," Rothenburger laughs. "Sometime in there!"
Subscribe to Email List
Archive
Category
Uncategorized
Our People
Serving the Community
-
“Got Water?” project announces 2020 hydration station schools!
-
Toilet Rebate Program hits 1 billion gallons of water saved!
-
Worst-case: What happens when a water main breaks under an airport taxiway?
-
Madison Water Utility adds first new well in more than a decade
-
Two Madison Water Utility projects getting national attention
-
Planned Blackhawk Water Tower signals growth on the far west side
-
MWU invests millions in water infrastructure on northeast side
-
Madison Water Utility first in state to launch "ultimate conservation tool"
-
Wisconsin Water for the World: Making a difference one village at a time
Sustainability
-
WI Salt Awareness Week examines environmental damage caused by road salt
-
Madison Water Utility reports unprecedented drop in city’s water use
-
Toilet Rebate Program hits 1 billion gallons of water saved!
-
Lost Lou and Peter Barryman tune about conservation gets new life.
-
Annual water use in Madison drops by a billion gallons in six years
-
Madison Water Utility adds first new well in more than a decade
-
You have a voice! MWU seeks public input on critical water issues
-
Madison woman gets serious about water conservation, wins an iPad
-
All eyes on the aquifer: Is Madison's water supply sustainable?
-
Madison Water Utility first in state to launch "ultimate conservation tool"
Water quality
-
"We'll be doing this forever." Understanding the impact of PFAS
-
Into the bore hole: Tackling the road salt problem at a west side well
-
Madisonians cite safety and conservation as top water issues
-
As Safe Drinking Water Act turns 40, Madison ramps up testing
-
Taking safety seriously: The story behind water chlorination
Tags
- aquifer
- Arbor Hills
- AWWA
- Barrymans
- Blackhawk
- Booster Pump Station 106
- Business COVID-19 coronavirus
- CAP
- capitol
- chloride
- chlorine
- Clean Water
- Climate Change
- Common Council
- Community
- Conservation
- cost
- cost of water
- Customer Care
- Customer service
- disinfection
- drinking water
- Education
- efficiency
- energy
- engineering
- environment
- EPA
- Fire
- Fire protection
- Flooded houses
- freezing
- Frozen pipes
- Got Water
- Got Water?
- graywater
- Greywater
- healthy kids
- History
- hydration
- Imagine a Day Without Water
- Infrastructure
- John Heim
- John Muir
- Lake View Hill
- lakes
- lead pipes
- lead service replacement program
- leaks
- Lou and Peter
- Lou and Peter Barryman
- Low Income
- Mad City Tappers
- Mad Women on Tap
- Madison
- Madison City Channel
- Madison Kipp
- madison municpal services
- Madison Water
- Madison Water Utility
- Main breaks
- Michael Edmonds
- MWU
- New well
- North Madison
- O'Dea
- Operation center
- Paterson
- Perfluorinated compounds
- PFAS
- pipes
- Placemaking
- plumbing
- Private Wells
- Project H2O
- Project Home
- Projects
- Public Works
- pumping
- Recycled water
- Remucal
- Reservoir Park
- Road Salt
- Safety
- shower
- Southeast
- stormwater
- study
- Survey
- Sustainability
- Tap Water
- Tapping Team
- Technology
- Testing
- Testing
- Toilet Rebate
- UW
- UW Madison
- Wanda Fullmore Youth Internship Program
- water
- water bill
- Water board
- Water conservation
- Water Main
- Water main flushing
- Water Mains
- Water Quality
- Water Quality Report
- water safety
- Water supply
- Water Tower
- Water Utility
- Water Wagon
- Water Works
- WaterSense
- watershed
- Well 14
- Well 31
- Well 8
- Wellhead Protection
- West Madison
- west side
- Winter
- Winter Safety
- Winterization
- WiSaltWise
- Women's
- World War II
- WWA