Update on Voght Well expected Thursday

We are expecting to find out Thursday as to how much longer Merritt residents will be asked to conserve water after a significant failure of the Voght Well which occurred on Tuesday morning.

According to Kim Mullin the City of Merritt Communication and Engagement Manager, the trouble began when a gasket burst, spraying high-pressure water throughout the pumphouse, impacting the electrical system. Crews were able to replace the gasket and conduct high-pressure testing to place the pipe back in service.

Unfortunately, Mullin added, since water and humidity impacted the electrical system during the failure, the electrical engineer recommended that the system be allowed to dry out for 48-hours before attempting a restart and perform testing.

The engineer will conduct testing and repairs throughout the day Thursday, July 11.

‘Depending on which components (if any) have failed due to water damage, sourcing replacements could take significant time,” she wrote in a release. ” There is no guarantee that complete repairs will be achieved by the end of the day. If that is the case, then the repairs could take longer.”

The situation could have been much worse, however the City was  able to put the recently repaired Collettville Pump Station to work which is compensating for the water deficit caused by reducing pumping capacity due to the failure.

The City is currently operating on three of its five wells which means there remains an increased risk of not having enough water to meet an emergency situation, such as a fire.

The City continues to ask residents to voluntarily limit non-essential water usage during this time and avoid watering lawns, filling pools or doing outdoor washing.  Watering of vegetable gardens is still permitted.

More to come…