15-02-2025
Mapleton working quickly to replace water main pipe
MAPLETON, Iowa (KCAU) — On Wednesday night, Mapleton officials were notified of a leak in a water main on 6th and Willow Street. On Friday, workers continued to tackle the issue.
Once notified, city officials got to work Thursday morning to dig down to the damaged pipe.
'Unfortunately, when we got to this particular pipe, it was a four-inch main- we're very used to seeing it, it had already had four patches on it,' Mayor Brent Streck said. 'So the problem we have is we couldn't put any more patches in that area. So we knew we had to get on and actually start replacing the entire water main there.'
According to Mayor Streck, the city was losing 100,000 gallons of water a day with that leak. Their water tower only holds 575,000 gallons.
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While city workers can handle the leak, replacing a water main requires a contractor, which the city was struggling to get.
'This time of year, every contractor is very busy on fixing because I'm sure every city's going through the same problem right now with water main breaks,' Streck said. 'So it's very limited of the contractors that have the time to come and do this. We actually found somebody, a contractor, who could come in and help us with this one, which has been an absolute best blessing.'
While the city continues to work on the water main, Streck says these repairs won't impact residents' water use.
'Obviously, there's some diminished water pressures, but we've been able to keep the water on to this point,' he said. 'What they're going to do is put some in some valves in, so they should be able to do those live. So there is no issue with having to show everybody off. The great thing about that is we don't actually shut down pressure. We don't have to do boil advisories and everything else.'
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Streck not only thanked Mapleton city workers for their continued efforts, but also the city of Le Mars for sending a few workers in to help.
'All the city guys go to the same meetings and they talk and they're like, if you ever need help, you know, give us a call.,' he said. 'So the city of Le Mars was gracious enough. They had the valves we needed in stock. They had the tools to be able to do it. And we called them this morning and said 'help, please.' And they sent a crew right down. So we're going to owe them a huge favor. Hats off to the crews up in Le Mars who jumped on it, jumped in the trucks, and they're down here right now getting our water shut off.'
The mayor told KCAU 9 that replacing the pipe could take a week or more.
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