ELKINS — The City of Elkins is “working diligently” to fix and replace “antiquated” water lines following multiple breaks and leaks this winter, officials said.

During the last winter, the City of Elkins saw a series of water line leaks and breaks, including a “pretty bad” leak in March that led to a temporary, multi-day road closure on a section of Third Street and a water boil advisory for nearby blocks. Public Water System Chief Operator and Manager Wes Lambert says while these things are not abnormal in winter, the breaks are occurring in the older infrastructure areas of the city.

“The City of Elkins had very antiquated (water) lines. Very old lines,” Lambert told The Inter-Mountain. “Some of them are probably 80+ years old and the cold spell we had in January went a little longer than what we’ve seen in previous years. We had found some areas where the ground was frozen three feet deep in places.”

Lambert explained that, when the temperature begins to warm up, the water lines start to show weak spots that cause breaks.

When asked if that was what caused the leak that occurred across from the Jennings Randolph Federal Building in March, Lambert said the Water Department had been looking for that particular leak for around four months. He said it was probably the worst long-term leak that he’s seen in the approximately 20 years he’s worked in this field.

“We noticed we were losing approximately 800,000 gallons to a million gallons a day up here at the plant,” Lambert said. “Our production was up that much more and we were losing that much extra out of our tank, and we had called in people to do line correlation. We had went out and did leak detection ourselves and we just weren’t having any luck.”

Water line breaks usually come up from the ground quickly, but as Lambert explained, this particular leak had somehow found its way into the city’s sewer line. The hidden leak from an eight inch line caused a nearby four inch line to break as well after the dirt around it was washed away.

Lambert said the two leaks overwhelmed the sewer line to the point that the water had nowhere to go, but up to the surface. The Water Department previously told The Inter-Mountain that they were informed of the above-ground leak by a resident who witnessed it. The work on the lines took around three days, Lambert said, with some of the crew working on the site for 24 hours.

“When we did go over there and start leak detecting to try and pinpoint it, we could not hear anything with the leak detector or the listening device until we were right on top of that leak,” Lambert said. “So basically why it went so long and we couldn’t find it. It’s part of the aging infrastructure.”

When asked if the city will see less water line breaks with the warmer weather, Lambert said he expected there to be a few more breaks that come to the surface in the next few weeks, but then it should slow down for a few months.

“I would say towards summer, what we usually see is when the ground dries up and pulls into those (water) lines, and then we start getting rain like in September and October, we start getting breaks in that area,” Lambert said. “Because what that does is it loosens the soil up that constricted around the pipes, and then pipes will flex and break from where they’re so old.”

Lambert said there are two times of the year when breaks occur the most, the winter months of December, January, February and March, and the autumn months of September, October and November.

Because of the antiquated system, Lambert says the Water Department is working with an engineering company to replace some of the older sections of lines. The company is working on setting up different replacement projects for different areas of the city. The issue at hand, though, is the cost, Lambert explained. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Lambert said they have seen prices in the industry “increase drastically,” with $10 million only covering half of the project work it used to.

“We’re all working diligently to come up with a game plan to get these antiquated lines replaced,” Lambert said. “It takes time. We really appreciate (the public’s) patience. I know it’s not fun for folks to go without water or to go on a boil water advisory, but we’re really doing the best we can with the timeframe we have.”

If a City of Elkins customer would like to talk or voice their concerns to Lambert, he said he’s glad to answer any questions and that the Water Department is open for visits.

For more information on the City of Elkins Water Department, visit the city’s website at cityofelkinswv.gov or call the Water Department at 681-298-5200.