Water main break interrupts service in Parsons

PARSONS, Ks. — Meanwhile, water is beginning to flow as it should again in Parsons, Kansas. This – after a leak recently erupted on the city’s main line.

Don Alexander, Parsons Business Owner, said, “We’ve never had this on a city wide scale.”

Pipes freezing during extreme cold temperatures is nothing new. And that’s exactly what happened in Parsons.

Jim Zaleski, Parsons Economic Development Director, said, “We noticed a drop in water pressure and began to search for any kind of a small main break.”

But it wasn’t small.

“Water that would normally circle through the former plant was now leaking into the basement and a severe rate in the bottom of the plant, enough to drop pressure to be noticed on our monitors.”

Thanks to the continued hard work of city employees however, the valves to section off the leak were shut, and pressure began to build again.

“At six p.m. on Monday, we reached 103 feet of water in our water towers, this morning we were at 115 feet, this should restore full pressure to the entire city.”

And as the water returns, people may start to notice a noise as they turn on their faucets.

“You will see varying pressures as the air is leached out of the system, when residents turn on their water, it might pop as the air is leached out of the system.”

It shouldn’t be anything to be scared of. But just as an added safety precaution to the change in pressure, the city is offering one piece of advice.

“If the pressure drops below a certain point, then you could potentially have back flow, which could put bacteria into the water, that never happened here, but because the absence of water within the system and the air in the system, the city has asked for a voluntary boil for any food preparation water or any water you’re going to drink.”

This shouldn’t be for more than 24 hours though, and with only a couple of tests left, soon the water in Parsons will be back to normal.

“God bless those guys because they had a tough job, so I’m glad they stuck it out,” said Alexander.