'Catastrophic' water main break repaired

Crews have repaired a “catastrophic” water main break in the city’s system that occurred during the early morning hours Monday.

Repairs to the water main on Baker Avenue near West Sixth Street were completed late Monday afternoon. The city of Whitefish issued a precautionary boil water advisory, but canceled the order Tuesday morning after laboratory test results confirmed that the water is safe to drink.

Public Works Director Craig Workman said much of the city was likely without water service until crews were able to get the leak under control and repressurize the system at about 5 a.m. Monday.

“Through the overnight hours there was a significant outage,” he said. “Once we were able to get it under control there was only about 50 homes and businesses without water. Their water was restored by 5 p.m. [Monday].”

Baker Avenue was closed to traffic during repairs, but was set to re-open Tuesday evening.

The break occurred on Baker Avenue near West Sixth Street and was caused by a failure in a “tee” connection that was installed in 1999.

Workman said the break was not typical of what is usually seen and it’s uncertain exactly what caused the failure.

“There was signs that it had been leaking for an extended period of time,” he said. “With the freeze and thaw cycle the soil loosened enough to cause the pipe to fracture.”

The break occurred in one of the lowest elevations of town and resulted in a loss of water pressure to a significant portion of the city, according to officials.

“Based on the elevation of the site and the sheer magnitude of the pressure, it caused a crack in the pipe that resulted in a catastrophic loss,” Workman said.

On Monday, the city was asking residents with water pressure to make efforts to conserve water and allow the system to refill and pressurize.

“The city would like to thank everyone for their patience and understanding during this unforeseen emergency,” City Manager Adam Hammatt said in a prepared release.