After a series of recent sewer and water issues, Whiteland officials are talking about infrastructure.
In the past year, there have been several boil water orders issued following infrastructure problems.
Shaun Young, Whiteland town manager of operations, spoke to the Whiteland Town Council about the most recent incident on Tuesday. The issue caused Whiteland Community High School and Whiteland Elementary School students to have an e-learning day and residents had to boil their water for over a day.
What went wrong
The issues behind the advisory were a sewer line breakage at Tichenor Lane and a water line burst near the town’s water tower. The sewer main collapsed two weeks ago and it was discovered that this was the second time repairs were necessary for that specific line, Young said.
A substantial chunk of concrete was found in the pipeline, which led Young to decide to replace the entire 150 feet of the eight-inch line.
At around the same time, Indiana American Water notified the town about upgrading the water meter from four inches to six inches. During this process, it was uncovered that a valve crucial for water flow would only partially open, so Young had to hire a contractor to replace the valve.
In the meantime, Young received a phone call regarding their booster pump, prompting the decision to proceed with its maintenance while a crew simultaneously worked on the sewer line.
Yet another problem arose shortly after Whiteland’s crew ended their workday.
“After everybody had went home, we had a ‘[tee connector]’ that decided it didn’t want to be on the line anymore,” Young said. “So it decided that it would blow itself off and just cause a big mess.”
Young’s crew worked to fix the problems and the boil water advisory was eventually lifted on Feb. 10.
Maintenance gaps
Council members asked about the overall condition of the water and sewer system.
Member Brad Goedecker and Council President Richard Hill asked Young to think of ways to proactively look for problems in the system. As Hill put it: “predictive maintenance, not preventative maintenance.”
There are cameras that can be used to take video of underground pipes, but this is costly and the town utility may not have the resources to fund this, Hill said.
Young acknowledged the need for repairs in other parts of the town. However, limited resources and budget constraints hinder more extensive preventive measures, he said.
Though there is not adequate funding now, a rate study is underway that will consider ways to address maintenance needs and funding shortfalls for the utility in the future. The town council hired Reedy Financial to complete a water and sewer rate study during their November meeting.
It has been 2o years since there was a sewer rate study completed and 13 years since the last water rate study, the council’s minutes from that meeting say.
Messaging about outages
Some water customers expressed concerns about the notification system during the advisory. Tim Brown, town council member, suggested at the meeting introducing a community-wide notification system and raised concerns about the town’s current notification methods.
The town utility does offer a notification system that can alert customers via text. However customers have to opt into it, said Carmen Young, Whiteland town manager of administration.
“The town offers a phone call, but getting people to sign up for it is kind of a battle,” Carmen Young said.
Brown asked about an alternative strategy such as printing messages on water bills.
“It is just common courtesy thing. I was just curious if there was something we could do to help,” Brown said.
That could be difficult to do, as there is a character limit for messages on water bills, said Melissa Frasier, clerk-treasurer.
