Here's what caused shutdown of Fort Collins water treatment plant Tuesday
A broken pipe at a Fort Collins water treatment facility led to disrupted water service for some customers throughout Larimer County on Tuesday afternoon.
A pipe at the Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Plant broke just before noon Tuesday, plant general manager Mark Kempton told the Coloradoan. The pipe carries plant process water, which is needed to transport water treatment chemicals throughout the plant, and with that pipe out of service, the plant could not treat any water.
The plant was forced to shut down for about seven hours until the pipe could be repaired, Kempton said.
The Soldier Canyon Water Treatment Plant provides water for Fort Collins-Loveland Water District, East Larimer County Water District and North Weld County Water District. From about noon until the issue was resolved about 7 p.m., customers in those water districts were asked to turn off all nonessential water use and outside irrigation.
The pipe was repaired and the plant resumed operations about 5 p.m., but it took a few hours of production to rebuild storage in the water tanks before customers were told the issue was resolved, Kempton said.
Fort Collins-Loveland Water District general manager Chris Pletcher said they had to ask customers to reduce their water use because the plant was unable to supply them with water while they were repairing the pipe.
Assistance from the cities of Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland, in conjunction with the water conservation efforts from customers, allowed the districts to continue providing water to their customers while repairs were being made, Kempton said. A Fort Collins Utilities spokesperson told the Coloradoan on Tuesday that their system was not impacted by this incident and they had begun sending water to the impacted water districts shortly after the plant's pipe broke.
“The combination of those efforts was very effective and we were able to weather through this temporary loss of supply by using water stored in our multiple storage tanks without losing system pressure or compromising fire protection water stored in our tanks,” Pletcher said in an email. “We cannot thank our customers enough for their responsiveness to our emergency messaging.”
Pletcher said they immediately saw a decrease in demand when they sent out the emergency alert to their customers, and they saw a similar increase in demand shortly after they told customers the issue was resolved.
Water quality was never affected, Kempton said, and there are no ongoing issues with water supply or pressure relating to this incident.
Fort Collins-Loveland Water District serves more than 60,000 customers in approximately 60 square miles covering south Fort Collins, north Loveland, and parts of Timnath, Windsor and unincorporated Larimer County.
East Larimer County Water District serves areas in Fort Collins, as well as areas north and east of the city.
This article originally appeared on Fort Collins Coloradoan: What caused Fort Collins water treatment plant shutdown Tuesday
