Ice cold: Repairing frozen and broken water lines like performing surgery with a backhoe

As the teeth on the backhoe bucket cut deep into the boulevard in the 300 block of East Park Street Wednesday assistant water superintendent Rocky Anders was watching the bucket's every swing and curl.

They were digging down to find a break in a four-inch main while trying to navigate around residential service lines, sewer mains and Ameren natural gas lines.

The weight of the bucket alone could break another line and make things that were already cold and bad, worse. It was almost surgical the way the bucket picked at the dirt around the line they were trying to find. All cold. All very fragile. All day.

The extreme cold two weeks ago and again today is causing the ground to heave and break lines, freezing other lines and causing nightmares for homeowners and business owners watching the water pour from broken lines while hoping there's enough money in the checking account to fix it.

City administrator Brad Myers: "Because of the constant freezing and thawing, most of our problems have been surface lines, which are easier to get to."

"There have been so many frozen water lines, we had four residents without water because we didn't have the parts," said Myers.

The city takes care of everything from your water meter out to the water line that runs along the boulevard. You are responsible for everything from the meter up and into your house.

A two-year old ordinance now requires you to contact the city to shut off your meter to work on a problem. You can no longer shut off the water yourself. During the extreme cold three weeks ago, the phone was ringing off the hook at city hall as water department staff members criss-crossed Du Quoin shutting off services, then turning them back on.

" It's cold out. They are in water when it's 15 degrees. We've had a lot of shut offs and turn ons. I posted on the city website and Facebook you need to find out where your shutoffs are," he said, usually a valve inside the home that shuts off your whole house and the faucets to the outside.

Myers said he told the guys to buy a portable torpedo heater to help take the edge off of the extreme cold.

The high today was expected to be only 14 with an overnight low of only 5.

Members of the Du Quoin Elks Club--site of next week's Du Quoin Chamber Outstanding Citizen of the Year--spent a day last weekend mopping up from a frozen water line and break in the attic of the their building just off of Rt. 51 north of Du Quoin. Members were faced with literally pushing water out the doors, mopping up the rest, then using commercial carpet cleaning vacuums to dry out the rest.

There was some modest sheet rock repair and painting, but the banquet center is expected to be back to normal for the chamber banquet.

When water freezes in a pipe it expands and can exert pressure over 2,000 pounds per square inch. This pressure is enough to rupture most any pipe filled with water which provides no place for the ice to expand.

If the forecast is for a deep freeze overnight, you can do a few things to prepare:

• Turn up the heat in your home to warm walls, floors and the basement.

• Open kitchen and bathroom cabinet doors to let warm air circulate around the plumbing.

• Turn your faucets on slightly to let a trickle of water flow to keep flowing through the pipes. A slightly higher water bill is better than a frozen pipe that bursts.

• Flexible styrofoam covers or electric heat tape can help insulate pipes, and you can buy foam outside faucet covers.

• Pile straw around any pipe on the outside that might be partially exposed. A portable heater can warm crawl spaces, but DO NOT have exposed flames. That goes for not using propane torches to thaw pipes. You can catch floors, walls or joists on fire.

Buildings and homes all over Du Quoin have seen damage from melting ice dams along the edge of the roof. Local contractors say they will be busy all next spring and summer making repairs.