Farmington volunteers respond to water leak

Garth Meyer, Gazette Reporter | Dec 06, 20120

A water leak in Farmington was taken care of last week by the mayor, ex-mayor, a retired water department employee from Spokane and an owner of an audio equipment company with a backhoe.

Water bubbled up at the corner of First and Lincoln streets the morning of Nov. 28.

Mayor Ron Dugan got on the phone and summoned Frank Triplett, formerly the Director of Water and Hydroelectric Services in Spokane.

Triplett came down and saw the water and soon ex-mayor Royce Johnson arrived to help, along with Mark Hellinger, owner of Audiopile, who had a backhoe.

The waterline was shut down and the group dug down four feet and found a crack in a two-inch coupling.

“Once in a while you spring a leak,” said Mayor Dugan. “Thankfully we’ve got the people that can take care of it. It would’ve cost thousands and thousands of dollars if we had to have a private firm come in and fix it.”

Dugan said the main repair was replacing the two-inch coupling, a piece which links two pipes.

“The ground settling is what caused it,” said Triplett, noting seasonal changes can add pressure to underground pipes.

“You can double and triple the downforce from heavy frost,” he said. “Some pipes are just not as flexible. Plastic doesn’t give.”

The afternoon of the leak, Triplett drove to Spokane to buy necessary parts, including a two-inch compression “Dressler” coupling to replace the damaged one. The new piece is designed to handle more downforce. Triplett also picked up a patching system for a six-inch line which was cut by the backhoe during digging.

Cost for the parts was $200.

Farmington does not have a Public Works director. Since a town levy failed in 2011, the town has had two part-time maintenance workers at a total of 20 hours per week.

After Triplett, Johnson, Dugan and Hellinger fixed the leak that day, Triplett returned the next morning to pack crushed rock onto the site by hand.

“The ground can’t settle anymore,” he said.

Triplett retired last year after 40 years with the water district in Spokane. He had held every job in the department, beginning as a labor-one employee in 1972 and finishing as the city’s Director of Water and Hydroelectric Services.