Village of Pecatonica water tower needs inspection

PECATONICA – During a recent meeting with Trustees and Village President Dan Barber, it was emphasized that an Illinois Environmental Protection Agency mandate required a routine inspection of the Village’s drinking water storage system It has been a while, according to reports, since it’s been done.

The IEPA requires a routine inspection on the safety of the water supply systems within a community at least twice per decade.

It has been too long of a period of time since a thorough investigation has been conducted, according to the Village President. There will have to be a thorough inspection now, that means it will cost more than just sending a diver in to look around, according to Barber.

“We approved spending up to $4,000 for KLM (NTE) for a complete drawdown. We’ll set up pumps and make sure the water service continues. We knew sending a diver down wouldn’t work this time. We had to go a different way. We hired a company who specializes in this kind of a project. KLM will have to take the tower out of commission to inspect it. It is required that we have it inspected at least once every five years. We have only had it drawn-down once since it was built; that was back in 1996 or 1997 I think.”

The drawdown implies exactly that, according to Barber, they will have to empty the water tower to be able to adequately inspect it, a cheaper method just wouldn’t work.

“You can not have a complete inspection of a tower with just using a diver. You can use them at times, but it has been too long, really, since we’ve had a drawdown. The water in the tank on Grove Road has only been brought down one time since that tower was put up.”

Barber said he hopes that by getting this inspection done this way, this time, it may mean the Village could choose a cheaper route the next time.

Access to fresh water begins at the water tower, the water mains and pipes, which underscore the Village’s roadways, pushing water into arteries under the Village. After the water’s useful purpose has expired, it exits a resident’s home and into the sanitary sewer system.

At times, Barber said he knew things can clog up and the Village might need to help. It would like to be able to see what kind of an issue it truly faces, before it takes any sort of action, according to Barber.

“We have to really start working on our mains and our sanitary sewer system. We are going to use Visu-Sewer. It cleans out the pipes and sends cameras in to find problem areas. It can clean the pipe out and put a liner in there, which ends up being stronger than the regular pipe.”

The bid approval posed to Trustees asked for the acceptance of up to $30,000 for the use of the service in an attempt to save the Village what could be thousands of dollars and a lot of surface area that could remain undisturbed.

It’s an amazing use of technology, according to Barber.

“They can come in and televise what the situation is below. The machine will clean the line first, sending a jet truck out and push as much stuff out of the way as it can. Then they send a camera down to see what the situation is, removing blockages and roots and things like that.”

Other communities, including Freeport, have been using this technology. Last year Freeport was able to clean, clear and replace approximately 21 miles of pipes, according to reports.