Lightning strike leads to low water pressure
Tom Hasslinger | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 12 years, 4 months AGO
<p>GABE GREEN/Press One of the water towers on the East side of Tubbs Hill was struck by lightning during recent thunder storms.</p>
COEUR d'ALENE - Blasted by a bolt.
The Coeur d'Alene water system experienced low water pressures Monday thanks to a strike from above.
A reservoir tank on Tubbs Hill was struck by lightning late Sunday or early Monday causing a level sensory failure that caused the control system to send erroneous information indicating there was plenty of water in the tanks even though there wasn't.
The city's water department realized it had a problem Monday morning after it received around a dozen phone calls from residents south of Lunceford-Neider Avenue who were experiencing low water pressure. After the tank was zapped, the control system couldn't determine that water levels were low, so it didn't refill low levels or notify employees there was a problem, which it usually does.
"I think they get hit often, but we don't have this problem all the time," said Jim Markley, water superintendent on the bolt causing the system to go to sleep on the job.
Fortunately, the strike caused only about $1,000 in damage, and the system was restored by Monday afternoon.
In 2009, the tanks on Tubbs Hill and Cherry Hill were nailed by lightning several times, causing similar missed level readings and $6,000 in damages.
The city's three holding tanks on those hills store up to five million gallons of water at a time for the city. By using their electrical pumping systems, the tanks relay between 26 and 28 million gallons of water per day from their nine aquifer water wells throughout the city. When one tank is too full or too low, its technical pumping system will release or fill it on its own.
After Monday's blast, water quality problems weren't noticed, although additional water samples have been taken to verify that the water quality is good, according to the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality. Generally, low water pressure increases chance of contamination, requiring disinfecting when it reaches low levels, but the city of Coeur d'Alene disinfects its supply on a continual basis through voluntary chlorination treatment, the DEQ said.