3 failed pumps cause boil water advisory in Weyburn

Bottled water is hot commodity in Weyburn this week as the city remains under a boil water advisory as of Monday morning

Nader Keshta, director of engineering for the city, explained three distribution pumps broke down at the water treatment plant over the weekend.

“Two pumps failed completely and the third pump failed partially so we are on the emergency pump right now – the diesel pump,” he explained.

Keshta said the water quality has not technically been compromised, but the province mandates a precautionary boil water advisory under these circumstances because the distribution lines are depressurized.

He said work is underway to fix the three pumps and one of them will hopefully be back up and running by the end of Monday.

The city actually had to call in a mechanic who specializes in dealing with this specific type of failure from Alberta.

“He will be dealing with the second pump and hopefully – there’s no timeframe for this – but by the end of this week we’ll be good to go, hopefully, based on the availability of spare parts,” Keshta explained.

Darlene Herberholz works at the Nimbus Water Shop, which has been busy for the past few days.

“People are kinda panicky and they’re wondering how long it’s going to last so they’re picking up extra waters,” she commented.

Herberholz said a lot of people she talks to don’t want to bother with the task of boiling water for everything from doing dishes to brushing teeth when bottled water is so much easier.

“It’s a pain, customers are getting kind of fed up with the city filtration plant,” she said, noting there have been issues with the water more than a couple of times this spring.

Public schools are still open for the final week of class, but the Southeast Cornerstone School Division has brought in bottled water for drinking.