MIDLAND, Texas — A waterline break in Midland caught the eyes of people traveling down Loop 250 on Sunday where water was spraying out of the ground high into the air.
"The way the water was blowing in the air it looks like its a small hole on top so we can put a clamp around," said Carl Craigo, Utilities Director for the City of Midland. "If it's a split there's a lot more and then you have to replace a big section of pipelines so we'll get this cleaned up and then take a good look at it."
The water and pressure coming from the pipe caused a huge hole in the ground, soaking the dirt around it.
The good news is the water was stopped efficiently by the City of Midland Utilities.
"This is about the ninth one we've had so far this month, so this is a 6 inch line, luckily we were able to get a good shut down we shut down two valves and luckily it only puts these three business out, luckily two of them were closed today, the La-Z-Boys open so they will be without water," Craigo said. "With this hot weather the ground moves a lot and we get lots of breaks. We also feel like it's been happening since we put our new system in so we've got a little bit more pressure in the pipes which finds our weak spots."
Right now the city doesn't know exactly how much water was lost, but that's on the to do list.
"You keep track of how much you think you lost so we can keep records of it and report it once a year, how much waters lost." Craigo said.
Also, its important for the public to do their job and report a break if they see one
These breaks can happen almost anywhere, so if you see something out of the ordinary give your local water and wastewater maintenance division a call, they have numbers for both in the day and for after hours.