Monterey 'turning a corner' in water shortage ordeal

Gabe Cavallaro

Staunton News Leader

Mayor Rich Holman addresses the crowd at a public meeting on Monday, August 14, 2017 in Monterey to inform them about the repairs being done on the town's water system. A local state of emergency was declared over the weekend after the town realized it had extreme low water levels in its reservoirs and that there were leaks throughout the system.

UPDATE 6:15 PM: The situation in Monterey, where citizens have been grappling with a water shortage since last week, took another positive step toward improvement by the end of the day Friday.

Leak detecting crews found two more significant leaks in the town’s water system Friday, but both were either repaired or had the line’s closed off, which resulted in immediate improvement in the amount of water in the system, said Lois Showalter, Monterey's clerk-treasurer.

The Monterey Mountain storage tank should be full by sometime tomorrow and the Jack Mountain storage tank “appears to be filling slowly," she said — “we hope this is turning a corner."

The town has been in contact with state officials throughout the day, including the offices of U.S. Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-6th, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and Gov. Terry McAuliffe and requested that the governor declare a state of emergency for Monterey.

The boil water advisory is still in effect and the town “will monitor the situation closely” over the weekend and will be in regular contact with the Virginia Department of Health and the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, Showalter said.

“We’re still not out of the woods,” she said. “It’s still a little scary but we think things are turning around, we hope things are turning around."

James Gardner delivers bottled water to the Monterey town offices on Monday, August 14, 2017 where he works after picking it up from a disaster relief organization in West Virginia. The town has been dealing with a water shortage for several days due to multiple issues with their water system.

MONTEREY - Monterey's three wells are all pumping again, but the town's water supply still remains insufficient, as of Friday afternoon.

This constitutes progress from what the situation's been there the past few days, said Lois Showalter, Monterey's clerk-treasurer, but things still aren't back to normal.

She said their primary focus is to “identify and repair leaks” because they're continuing to find more in the water system. Leak detection crews from Staunton and Bath County are in Monterey working on it — if they find a "significant leak," they'll have to make a repair immediately though.

More:

Water shortage leaves Monterey high and dry

Residents, firefighters nervous as Monterey water dries up

Monterey water shortage continues; recovery timeline still unknown

Tanker trucks will continue to bring water in through the weekend to recharge the town's storage tanks, Showalter said.

And the Virginia Department of Health's boil advisory for town water is still in effect.

Showalter said the town sent out an alert to residents at 12 p.m. Friday with this latest update and an update may be coming at 5:30 p.m.

Last Tuesday, town residents began to experience low water pressure. An investigation of the water system found some leaks and on Thursday the Virginia Department Health issued the boil water advisory.

Over the weekend the problems got worse. One of the town’s three wells pumped its aquifer dry and had to be shut down. The second well dropped from its normal output of 60 gallons per minute to below 20. On Saturday a state of emergency was declared, with the town saying “the draw down on the system continues to exceed the supply.”

On Monday evening a previously scheduled town council meeting drew a crowd with questions about when they would have water again.

The council then adopted an emergency ordinance that made it a misdemeanor that carries a fine of up to $100 to use town water to water lawns or gardens, wash vehicles or fill swimming pools.

Casey Marshall, Chief Operations Officer with the Highland Medical Center announced that the facility would begin re-opening on Tuesday with the pharmacy. Other services at the facility would continue to open throughout the week as a temporary water tank and pump are installed to provide water.

Monterey residents attend a public meeting to address the town's water system issues on Monday, August 14, 2017. A local state of emergency was declared over the weekend and water is being trucked in for residents to use until repairs are completed to the well pumps and water lines.

The floor was then turned over to town residents. Many questioned the lack of communication when the problem arose and wondered why the town council had not foreseen the water problem.

“We have a nice walking path and we have nice looking trash cans, but we have a water system that is not functional,” said town resident Mickey Fenn.

Town officials estimated at the meeting Monday that it would be at least four days and could be as much as two weeks until Monterey’s water supply is back to normal again.

According to Monterey’s Chief Utilities Operator Michael Isles, the problems started about a month ago when boring for a telephone line cracked two water lines. The leaks went undetected and slowly drained the town’s reservoirs.

—Jeremiah Knupp, Special to the News Leader, contributed to this report