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Broken main leaves Talent half-dry By JILL BRISKEY TALENT - A broken water main has forced the city to draw its water supply from Wagner Creek, but the switch will provide the town with roughly half its daily needs. To cope with the crisis, Talent residents are being required to stop washing cars, shut off sprinkler systems and conserve their water until repairs are complete. Wednesday afternoon, the city's main line inside the Bear Creek treatment plant burst while crews were working nearby. The force of water knocked a concrete slab off the ground and into two water pumps. Public works supervisor and acting director Lester Naught said the concrete slab cracked the casing on the pumps, which were scheduled for maintenance repairs in October. However, no damage to other structures or flooding was reported. City crews and contractors labored into the night but were unable to repair the line. A notice of water conservation didn't go out until Wednesday afternoon. "At the time, we believed we could get it fixed, or temporarily fixed," said City Administrator Kelly Madding. "It didn't work." The 35-year-old water line, which was damaged and frail, was custom-made along with the rest of the plant, and city officials were forced to order replacement parts. Naught said a new water line is being built in Portland, and is expected to be shipped to Talent today. Crews hope to repair the two pumps and install the new line sometime today. The new line and repair work will cost an estimated $5,000, Naught said. A code enforcement officer will patrol the city today, Madding said, reminding residents who don't know about the water curtailment to turn off their water. She said the officer won't be ticketing residents. "We're actually mandating the curtailment," Madding said. "(The code enforcement officer) is just a general reminder to people." The city uses an estimated 1 million gallons of water per day and augments its normal supply from Wagner Creek in the summer. At its maximum performance, Madding said crews can draw roughly 500,000 gallons of water from Wagner Creek each day. The city cannot use water from a newly constructed storage tank to alleviate the temporary water shortage. "The chlorine residue is too high at this point," Madding said of the water in the new tank. "We can't use it for this." Although repair work should be completed sometime this afternoon, Madding said residents are being asked to cut back their water use until at least Friday. Reach reporter Jill Briskey at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.