Water issues continue in Rawlins, and most recently, they were compounded by staffing shortages.
Over Labor Day weekend there were six water line breaks in Rawlins.
“When a water main breaks, it basically craters a hole in the roadway,” said Cody Dill, the Rawlins Public Works director who was on scene. “We believe one of them happened, and it was big enough to where that changed the pressure downstream and just caught another weak spot, and it [was] just kind of a chain reaction in our system.”
This is the latest in a several year, ongoing issue with Rawlins’ city water infrastructure. The over 100-year old system is aging and continues to make delivering water to residents a challenge.
Rawlins is not alone in their problems. Nationwide, water pipes are aging and in “serious need” of replacement or upgrades.
And until Rawlins’ system is completely overhauled, water breaks like this will continue to happen.
“Infrastructure there and other parts of town – it's just fatigued,” said Tom Sarvey, Rawlins’ city manager. “It's just getting towards the end of its life. And so as these events occur, our lines’ just fatigued. It just can't handle a lot of the pressure.”
The city is in the midst of applying for funding for the $80 million project. But part of qualifying for that funding is finishing up the engineering designs for the new system, something that’s in progress.
Rawlins also raised water rates this spring. The average bill is about $25 more now. But another thing that’d help? Filling positions.
The Rawlins utility division is hiring, as they’re down five workers, from their normal nine.
“On a normal water break, you don't need the whole nine person crew. It's maybe three to five [workers],” said Mira Miller, Rawlins’ public information officer.
But six water line breaks wasn’t normal. Public Works pulled staff from other city departments to help – and it still took three days of around the clock work to fix.
City officials said that filling those positions is tricky. There haven’t been a lot of applicants, plus it takes time to hire and train new employees.
Rawlins has faced similar problems, and even water use restrictions, for over two years because of water infrastructure issues.
