Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Backhoe driver cuts water line

A temporary water fountain was "installed" in Gurdon on Monday, June 13, when an Arkansas State Highway Department backhoe driver accidently hit a four-inch water main.

The pipe was located at the corner of Highway 67 and Highway 53, in front of Jeff's Car Care, and Water Superintendent James Cox said the leak was not fixed until about 7:30 that evening.

Cox said, "The driver told me AHD was trying to improve drainage and ran into the water line by mistake.

"There was a fiber optics computer cable near there and they were trying to avoid hitting that."

Cox said he and Water Department employee Matt Dickerson worked several hours trying to repair the line by digging through cement, four feet into the ground, at Jeff Blanton's Car Care parking lot.

Of course, the city workers were also having to avoid the fiber optics cable.

"We had to use a shovel to dig so we could avoid the fiber optics cable and a main supply line for gas," Cox said. "We got to the problem and fixed it with two large clamps and about a 22-inch piece of pipe  making a splice to securely put things back together and stop the leak."

According to Cox, water pressure all over Gurdon did go down "but it was never below 20 pounds, so we did not have to shut the system down."

"The law says if we have pressure below 20 pounds, we must shut down," he said. "This water loss was probably an eighth of a tank at our Red Springs water tank site. That tank normally holds 225,000 gallons  so we did lose quite a bit of water."

Cox added that nobody was out of water "except a few right there on Main Street."

Cox said Gurdon has a 10th Street elevated water tank that holds approximately 300,000 gallons. But the Red Springs tank was the supplier to the injured main line and could be read to determine how much water was lost.

Mayor Clayton Franklin said water pressure has returned to normal.

"Nothing else has been effecting our pressure significantly. We have had a few hot days, but the dry weather is yet to come, say in August," the mayor said.

"As to water supply, we have been running along pretty good except for the amount lost due to the leak. There has been some more usage than normal because of people watering grass and gardens.

"But overall, I would say plants and people are holding up OK. I would say just about everyone has normal water pressure now, as our leak accident is behind us."