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  • Daily Sun photo/Janet Jacobs A massive water leak hollowed out a cavern beneath Forest Lane in Corsicana, which broke through Friday morning.

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March 13, 2010

‘Cavern’ disrupts water service

City crews uncover massive water leak Friday

By Janet Jacobs Corsicana Daily Sun

Corsicana — Corsicana city crews discovered a massive water leak under Forest Lane Friday, resulting in the loss of about one million gallons of water and shutting down water service to homes and businesses for most of the day.

The water leak evidently started small and slowly hollowed out a 15-foot cavern beneath the street before breaking loose with a vengeance Friday morning, according to Ron Lynch, Corsicana’s director of public works.

The water rushing from the 12-inch line drained one water tower and was working on the others before crews trying to dig up a valve realized their road-breaking equipment was sitting on top of the leak.

As the backhoe pounded on the blacktop, enlarging the hole, the asphalt over the cavern vibrated like the skin of a drum.

“We were just lucky,” Lynch said.

The water flow was draining into a 48-inch city stormwater pipe that runs under the street and releases into a nearby creek. Because of recent heavy rains the higher-than-normal levels in the creek hadn’t been noticed earlier, Lynch explained.

Water was shut off in the north part of the city while crews put in shut-off valves, repaired the line and the stormwater drain as well.

The loss of water was estimated at 3,000 gallons a minute Friday morning.

“We’ve probably lost about a million gallons out of the towers, with what we’re pumping, too,” said Ronnie Woodall with the water treatment plant. “It could be 900,000.”

The leak was on the same line that fell in five years ago, Lynch said. At that time, the city replaced a long section of it.

Discovering the leak began at the lake, when workers alerted to the monitoring guages showing the water towers were draining rapidly. The towers provide water pressure. Making it difficult to spot was the fact that the leak didn’t spill out into the street or yards, but was flowing into the broken nearby stormwater drain and then out into the creek.

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Janet Jacobs may be reached via e-mail at jacobs@corsicanadailysun.com. Want to “Soundoff” on this story? E-mail: soundoff@corsicanadailysun.com

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