Residents without water during heat spell

It started as a drip. Now Mossbank, a town of more than 400 residents southwest of Regina, is without water.

Despite the soaring temperatures, Cindy Kimball, Mossbank’s town administrator, said the residents are doing fine.

She said work is underway to get the water turned back on as soon as possible.

“We’re hoping for (Wednesday) morning,” she said. “They are coming along with the repair and they are optimistic.”

She said there were planned repairs scheduled for the town’s pumphouse.

“The (superintendent) had found a leak in the pumphouse — every morning he would find a little drip there,” Kimball said. “Everyone has aging infrastructure so to prevent anything major happening, we decided to go ahead and fix the leak while we were in control of it.”

For the past few months, the town has been preparing for a short disruption in water services.

“People had been notified that the water would be off for two hours (Monday) and (that) you couldn’t just drink the water from the tap for a week,” Kimball said. “Because we knew we were going to be doing the repairs we also brought in a large storage tank and we filled it from the well before they started on these repairs.”

It was when the water was turned off and repairs were underway when the main line ruptured.

“THEY ARE COMING ALONG WITH THE REPAIR AND THEY ARE OPTIMISTIC.”

CINDY KIMBALL

“When the line broke it meant (the water) was off longer,” Kimball said. “So we went door-to-door (Monday) night and let them know they would have a one-hour window to refill any storage contain- ers they had.”

The stored water was to be used for washing dishes and flushing the toilet.

“All they would have to do was have a supply of drinking water,” Kimball said.

She said the local businesses were also informed of the disruption in water services.

On Tuesday, the pool, restaurant, and bar closed for the day because they don’t have public services in them.

Kimball said all 460 residents are managing just fine.

She said had the town not made plans for the repairs then things “would not have been so good.”

Residents have access to a clean water supply.

Monday night, the local grocery store and other businesses were made aware of the situation so that they could also prepare to be without water longer than originally anticipated.

“They are bringing in water a couple times a day to make sure people have drinking water,” Kimball said about the LAW Grocery Store.

She said contingency plans were made well in advance and work is moving along. Kimball remains hopeful that the water will be back and running by today.

However, because the water has been off residents will remain under a boil water advisory for at least a week.