Contractors investigating a 16-inch water main break that left thousands of Groveland residents without water last month say poor installation may have played a role, a new development as residents continue to demand answers about repeated outages.
During a Thursday update, Groveland’s water contractors, Woodard & Curran, said early observations suggest the pipe may have been compromised before it failed.
“When the National Pipe and Plastic representatives showed up, he took his initial look at it. He said the pipes were over-homed,” one contractor said. “The restraint gland that’s on or outside that had the all-thread were not put on evenly.”
Contractors said both ends of the pipe appeared to be affected by poor installation. They also said they did not believe a water hammer, or pressure surge, caused the break.
Until now, city staff and leaders had pointed to the pipe’s age as a possible factor. The pipe is more than 30 years old.
Residents have criticized the city’s handling of the outages and the explanations provided so far.
The city is now moving forward with forensic testing on the pipe. Officials said those results are expected in about two to three weeks and could help determine what caused the failure.
Groveland is also preparing to launch a new emergency alert platform called Groveland Connect, which city staff said is designed to send faster and more efficient updates during emergencies.
City consultant Lorri Shaban said the city had been relying on an older system with limited communication options.
“We were using an old, outdated system that was very limited, which was Tyler,” Shaban said. “So our first and our only communication piece or channel was Facebook.”
Staff said Groveland Connect will cost $9,616.50 to implement, with an annual recurring cost of about $8,512.50. The city said that is significantly less than its current system, Tyler, which cost about $3,500 to send text messages during one recent water outage.
City staff are now training to use Groveland Connect for emergency alerts and updates. The system is scheduled to launch Nov. 1, but officials said it will be ready to use sooner if needed.