The Southwest Lincoln County Water Peoples Utility District repaired two major water main breaks over the weekend, but its problems may just be starting.

Some 57 PUD customers along a stretch of U.S Highway 101 spent some or all of the weekend without water after clusters of valves on 10-inch water mains failed Friday. District manager Tui Anderson said bolts on the top of the valves corroded and gave way Friday in what he termed a worrisome coincidence. The outage stretched from Blodgett Road to Wakonda Beach Road.

“The big issue is why this happened,” he said. “Two main line failures at once is highly unusual.”

Anderson said district crews tried to repair the valves Friday, but discovered the pipes were buried eight feet and decided they had to call in excavation companies to use trenching equipment. Repairs were made to the valve along Highway 101 near Beachside State Park on Saturday, he said, but the valve near Wooldridge Lane wasn’t finished until Sunday afternoon.

The district offered customers bottled water for drinking and portable water for flushing during the outage.

The big worry now, Anderson said, is the condition of bolts on hundreds of valves on miles of pipeline serving the district’s 1,250 customers and its various tanks and water systems. The district stretches from the north edge of Yachats into the south side of Waldport.

The valves that failed Friday were installed 26 years ago, Anderson said, and appeared to have bolts that “were not good enough for our corrosive environment.”

Now, he said, the district needs to come up with a plan – and significant money – to start a program of uncovering valves and replacing bolts on them. Anderson said he has begun contacting state and federal agencies to see if there are grants or loan programs to pay for the work.

“My biggest concern is the rest of the valves and getting money to check and fix them,” he said. “We’re actively looking at emergency funding. This was the biggest water emergency event in the district’s 77 years.”