After 103 days and 6,900,000 gallons, Waitsfield’s municipal water system leak was successfully repaired, and the system was back online after a couple hours of work this week.
The leak was discovered on December 11 and increased the town’s water usage by 60,000 to 74,000 gallons a day. Extensive analysis and isolation work by the water system operator Nate Fredericks of Simon Operating Services narrowed possible locations for the leak down to a curb stop in front of the Waitsfield Wine Shoppe.
Jeff Knight
Town officials had Kingsbury Construction undertake the repair this week. Town administrator York Haverkamp reported that the work proceeded without a hitch and that the system was back online and the site cleaned up and restored quickly.
The work required removing sections of sidewalk and digging into an on-street parking area along Route 100, but not into the travel lane itself. The curb stop — a capped connection point extending from the main water line — is located beneath the sidewalk and is estimated to be more than six feet deep, requiring a sizable excavation. During the repair, town relocated it closer to the wine shoppe building during the repair to avoid similar disruptions in the future. The business is not connected to the water system and the curb stop provides that possibility in the future.
York Havercamp
“Work began before 8:00 a.m. when crews cut the sidewalk in front of the Wine Shop on Main Street to begin excavation. Once digging commenced, crews encountered a soupy gravel mix with small voids — a sign of how long water had been moving through the ground — but conditions that ultimately made the work manageable,” explained Waitsfield Town Administrator York Haverkamp.
“As excavation deepened, significant amounts of water were present and a pump was brought in to assist. The broken pipe was located exactly where crews had expected, at the curb stop approximately six and a half feet down. Faced with continuing to dig in standing water, Kingsbury made the skilled and decisive call to attempt placing a valve directly over the pipe to stop the flow — and it worked. That move proved to be a turning point, allowing the repair to proceed far more efficiently than it might have otherwise,” he continued.
“The Town of Waitsfield would like to extend its sincere thanks to Nate with SOS for his many late nights searching for the source of the leak and his commitment to ensuring safe water for the community. The town also thanks Kingsbury for their intentional, deliberate, and thoroughly professional approach to what turned out to be a technically demanding repair,” Haverkamp added.
