Crews busy with water main breaks

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, Ohio (WDTN) - This is the time of year when about a third of the water main breaks occur in Montgomery County.  

Friday morning there were at least seven and one was at Wagner Ford Road where Jason Harrold stepped up to direct traffic.

"This is actually pulling me away from my duties at the hotel to help direct traffic from hydoplaning on this water or sliding on this ice that's accumulated which runs directly into a gas pump and could cause a car to run into the gas pump," Harrold told 2 NEWS.

The location was repaired by noon, but unfortunately another break occurred after noon at 5230 Springboro Pike in Moraine.  Crews respond with certain priorities in mind.

Brianna Wooten of Montgomery County Water Services said, "One safety and health concerns, two is the number of people affected, three is the size of the break, otherwise we take them chronologically."

Wooten said water main breaks happen as the soil expands and contracts around pipes. The pipes can wiggle and break.  Throughout the year a leak detection team listens for trouble ahead.

Wooten explained, "We have a preventive leak maintenance crew that goes out to check our water lines using cool sound technology to see if they can hear leaks so it's actually a preventive maintenance step we take and it's reduced our leaks to 20% per year loss to 11% which is really good."

Montgomery County Water Services says there are thousands of miles of pipe to take care so insulating all those pipes is not really an option.

If you need to report a break in Montgomery County,  the number to use is (937) 781-2680. There have been about 645 so far this year.