Seattle Press on Line - Roger's Home Journal: Water Supply Woes

Roger's Home Journal: Water Supply Woes

By Roger Faris

Aug 29, 2002 -- MY FRIENDS Mike and Diane have been great water savers. For years, they’ve been using this precious resource very sparingly, in part because the ancient steel supply pipe that serves their house has been remarkably clogged with rust. They could use one plumbing fixture at a time, and never felt the need to take a dietary iron supplement.

Recently, they discovered that the old pipe had failed, and water was being discharged into the ground. Finding and repairing the leak was to be just the beginning of a bit of an ordeal. A temporary fix was not going to be a good solution. It was time for the old supply line to be replaced, and I thought it would be great fun to volunteer to help out. Sometimes I get really odd ideas…

Many people in our area are facing this same sort of project, but few will be confronted with the number of difficulties that Mike and Diane had to overcome. Their water meter was not located in front of their home, but was found four houses away, up the hill, and around the corner. This was a historical artifact from the turn-of-the-century development of their neighborhood. Water supply pipes were laid on some streets, but not others. Theirs was one of the others.

Digging through the yards, gardens, driveways, bulkheads, rockeries, and walkways of several properties was going to be a difficult proposition, at best. It was clear that paying the city an enormous sum to move the meter was going to help, but they soon learned that since no water main was present on their street, a new meter box at the corner was the best they could negotiate.

A very long ditch would still be needed, and the water department requirement for a minimum depth of 24” would make that a somewhat Herculean task. We are very fortunate and feel gratitude toward the inventor of the power trench-digging tool. The long run down the hill was accomplished with reasonable speed and few blisters. One frustration with this phase of the project, though, was that the first rental machine was not up to the job. It wouldn’t cut quite deep enough, and couldn’t handle the size and quantity of rocks present in the so-called “soil.” The larger “Ditch Witch” came on a trailer, and was a joy to behold and to operate.

The truly tough part of the job was creating a tunnel under the sidewalk and adjoining rock bulkhead. The first idea was to try blasting a hole with the use of water pressure. But the available water volume and pressure was already a sore point, and the prospect for muddy failure loomed large. Instead, we just got to digging with a variety of picks, shovels, wrecking bars, etc. Our favorite turned out to be a four-inch wide shovel with a long handle. That handle was eventually extended with another pole lashed with good supply of duct tape. The work proceeded from both ends, and was eventually completed with no loss of life.

Trench safety is really a serious issue. Every year someone in our area is buried by the collapse of a trench or other variety of hole in the ground. Don’t take any chances!

The final step was to lay the new pipe. Heavy gauge rolls of 1” copper was selected, because of the long distance to the house. One challenge was to reshape the ends of the 60’ segments so they would accept the cylindrical soldered couplings. The soft-copper pipe was not perfectly round after being rolled up and then unwound in the ditch. It needed to be coaxed back into shape with a large crescent wrench.

Eventually, every obstacle was conquered, and the test brought a satisfying gush of water and the beginning of an improved standard of living. The success would not have been possible, however, without the morale boosting enthusiasm and hard work of a certain thirteen-year-old daughter. Mike and Diane are lucky to have a worker like Jillian.

Roger Faris is the director of the Phinney Neighborhood Association Well Home Program and Project Impact Earthquake Retrofit Program (and a Research Associate with the Save The World Institute). He can be reached at (206) 789-4993.

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Tom Land	Mar 04, 2003	Kenmore	Project manager
Land