YACHATS – The city of Yachats announced Saturday morning that crews had fixed a break in a six-inch water line along Yachats Ocean Road and service to the area had been restored. The break was detected Friday after residents living at higher elevations reported a drop in water pressure.
“It drained about half the reservoir on the south side of town,” said water supervisor Rick McClung. “It was detected by low pressure complaints of people living at higher elevations in the main part of town on the hill.”
The city estimates the tank on Crestview Drive south of the Yachats River lost about 125,000 gallons of water. The city’s reservoirs are interconnected and fill together, which is what led to the water pressure drop at higher elevations.
“It hadn’t drained so far that it set off the low-level alarm at the reservoir,” McClung said.
The computer system at the city’s water plant identified what reservoir was low, which then directed crews where to look for the leak.
During the repair Friday, the city said water service would be temporarily suspended for homes along Yachats Ocean Road and would affect some other areas, but that water and pressure would be restored as the reservoirs refill.
The cause of the break and when it occurred are not clear, but a set of tire marks from what appears to be a large piece of machinery furrowed a sizable ditch along a 30-foot section on the east side of Yachats Ocean Road about 200 yards south of the Yachats River estuary.
“This probably happened last weekend or so,” said Yachats wastewater treatment plant supervisor Dave Buckwald, who is overseeing repairs. “We can’t say for sure that this (furrow) did it but it’s an interesting coincidence.”
