Staff
With the town having received reports of frozen service lines over the past week, Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown again is urging those who have had a history of such problems to “bleed” their taps.
Brown told council Monday night there’s been 10 reports of residential lines freezing so far, two of which were “repeat customers.”
“Last year at the same time, we had 152, so it’s a little bit less this year,” he noted.
“But what I am worried about is there were 263 lines last year that froze.
“We started phoning the people today because we have all of the numbers and the contacts [from last year],” Brown told council.
“We just want them to start ‘bleeding’ so that they don’t run out of water and there’s a big list [of lines to thaw],” he reasoned.
Those who had their service line freeze last year are urged to run a stream of water about half the width of a pencil (3/16th of an inch) from the nearest fixture (tap) where your service line comes into the home.
“Your service line usually comes in in your basement so if you have a downstairs sink, run your cold water 3/16th of an inch and you won’t have any problems,” said Brown.
He noted that if ICI (industrial/commercial/institutional) water customers start to “bleed,” they should contact the town at 274-9893.
That way, the town can take a meter reading and only charge them minimum cost for the water they run.
“We’ve got to make sure that we all work together in keeping water running to people’s houses but we need your co-operation, too,” Brown stressed.
“If you had a frozen water line last year and you were one of the 263, please start ‘bleeding.’”
