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'System recovering as it should': Water slowly returning to Milledgeville homes

Engineers say rather than a large hidden leak, a series of smaller breaks could've caused the low water pressure. We show you the latest efforts from city leaders.

MILLEDGEVILLE, Ga. — We've been following the water emergency in Milledgeville this week that left hundreds of folks without water.

Hank Griffeth, city manager, says that since fixing smaller water line breaks on Tuesday, water is slowly returning to people's homes.

The water tank that sits on Dunlap Road was mostly emptied out as residents were without water the past couple of days. 

Griffeth says that the tank and several others around the city are slowly filling back up, which means that the water system is heading back to normal.

"We haven't noticed any increased demand or decreased pressure at the treatment plant, so that would lead us to believe that the system is recovering as it should," Griffeth explains.

He says since they're repaired several water main breaks, water slowly started returning to homes. Their engineers now believe that a series of smaller breaks could've caused the low water pressure rather than a large hidden leak.

"That may have taxed our system a little bit more than we thought it did," he says.

Griffeth says their current water system needs to be updated, but there are other reasons why the pipes failed.

"You can look around the state and see municipalities and utilities and water authorities that most likely had much newer infrastructure than we did, but they also had problems."

Griffeth says they can't guarantee that a situation like this won't happen again, but they're working to be better prepared.

"We will be using ARPA funds to put a new SCADA system in place. SCADA is the reporting structure where we can know what's going on without actually having to look at a tank," he says. "If some of that had been in place in this situation, I don't know if it would necessarily have stopped this situation, but we might've known about it a little bit earlier."

Several days of low pressure left some families scrambling for drinking water, flushing, and showers.
There were also concerns about low pressure in the event of a fire.

"If the situation ever arose, then we would be prepared," says Ronald Crooms, Milledgeville Battalion Chief.

Crooms says there were no fires during the past couple of days. However, they would be okay if they didn't have an adequate water supply from the city.

"We will reach out to our mutual aid departments and get water from those hydrants that are not affected by the water main break. We also have some capabilities of drafting [water]," Crooms says.

That means they can even get water from ponds or swimming pools. The county can also loan them a 2,000-gallon tanker truck to shuttle water.
Baldwin County Emergency Management Director– Wayne Johnson says– they even have measures beyond those options.

"The county does have mutual agreements in place with each of our surrounding counties. So, what we would do is that the fire chief would reach out to surrounding counties and ask for assistance," Johnson says.

He says Putnam, Hancock, Jones, Washington, and Wilkinson Counties are available to assist with an emergency and water if the situation calls for it.

For now, they'll be able to get all the water they need straight from the hydrants again.

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