Power outage is not the only problem Crittenden County residents are experiencing right now. Many are finding their water taps dry.
Hundreds of Crittenden-Livingston Water District customers are without running water, largely due to the ice storm that knocked out power this week.
The district's pumps that fill the big 660,000-gallon water tank on Wilson Hill in Marion were without power Tuesday and the tank went dry. Eventually power was restored to the pump and the district started refilling the water tank that serves much of eastern and northern parts of the county. Many residents did not even notice a problem Tuesday or Wednesday because the distribution system still had plenty of water held in reserve.
However, on Thursday, the water plant at Pinckneyville in Livingston County lost electricity for about four hours. Due to that and low reserves because of Tuesday's pump failures, the Marion tower went dry again Thursday. This time, many customers are finding disruption in water service.
District Superintendent Donnie Beavers told us at 3:40 p.m., Thursday that power had just been restored at the water plant. It is now refilling the district's secondary water tank at Moore Hill west of Marion. When that tank gets to a certain level, it can then start pumping water to the big Marion tower.
Beavers said customers without water during the day Thursday, should find that their service is restored sometime Thursday night.
There is one problem, however. The water district is not certain that a major leak isn't causing some of its distribution problems. When a leak occurs, the best way to find it is to look for water coming to the surface of the earth above the broken line. Because of the heavy thaw Thursday, the ground is wet everywhere, hampering the district's ability to detect a leak.
The City of Marion has been pumping additional water into the county system to help out.
As more information becomes available, we'll pass it on.
