The break occurred shortly before 10 a.m., as Damariscotta and Great Salt Bay Sanitary District (GSBSD) employees were using a fire hose and hydrant to clear out a blocked culvert adjacent to the Coastal Marketplace property, Aug. 24.
The workers shut off the hydrant and “something in the hydrant failed” causing a sharp increase in water pressure and blowing two holes in the water line, said GSBSD Water Division Manager Scott Abbotoni.
Water service was completely restored by 5 p.m. to the Bus. Rt. 1, Main Street section by First Federal Savings Bank and Yellowfront Grocery, Abbotoni said.
Though tackling a water main break is no easy feat, Abbotoni said he was surprised to the extent of the break at Yellowfront Grocery. “It was about three feet long and the whole top of the pipe came right off,” he said.
Abbotoni credits the quick fix to Hagar Enterprises, Inc., of Biscay Road in Damariscotta for their swift response to the call for excavators.
He was also proud of GSBSD’s response time. “We had the water shut off within 10 minutes of receiving the call about the water main break,” he said.
Abbotoni estimates the cast iron pipe that ruptured was “maybe about 50 years old. Now we use ductal pipe, which is basically the same as cast iron. They spin it which makes it stronger and it has a cement lining.”
Fortunately, workmen didn’t have to go far for new pipe. “We have a pipeyard down there [at GSBSD], and we estimate it took about 20 feet to make the repair,” Abbotoni said.
Because of the extreme pipe weight, Abbotoni credits the Hagar excavators with timely repair success. “We had two excavators there, one at each site and were able to work simultaneously to get the repairs done. If we had only one, we probably wouldn’t have been done by midnight,” he said.
The only repercussion of the loss of hundreds of gallons of water was, “just a muddy mess. It also stirred up some of the pipe. When it broke, it made some water dirty in town. There was just so much pressure in the pipe, it could have dislodged some rust from the inside, but that’s about it,” he said.
