Monroe County Commissioners took drastic action on Monday, Dec. 26 to alleviate a critical water supply shortage within its North Monroe County water system by tying onto existing City of Forsyth water lines to pump water into the county’s north system.
The county’s north water system is typically serviced by the neighboring Butts County Water & Sewer Authority. However, Butts County water officials notified the Monroe County Water Department and its water management firm, H2O Innovations, on Christmas morning of a water supply shortage affecting the entire Butts County water system. Both Butts County and Monroe County water officials worked all Christmas Day to try to determine the cause of the water shortage, but as of Monday afternoon, the cause has yet to be determined.
With Monroe County’s 250,000-gallon tank in High Falls having dwindled down to just 37,000 gallons as of noon on Monday, Commissioners decided to seek emergency approval from the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to determine if Monroe County Emergency Services (MCES) could use two of its fire engine hoses to transfer water from the City of Forsyth water system to the county’s north water system. With assistance from several state legislators, Monroe County received EPD approval to undertake the emergency solution, and City of Forsyth officials also graciously honored the county’s request immediately. Had these joint actions by Monroe County and City of Forsyth officials not taken place almost immediately on Monday afternoon, the entire north Monroe County water system likely would have run out of water by day’s end.
Therefore, Monroe County water officials closed the valve bringing in water from Butts County until the shortage can be rectified and instead pumped water from the City of Forsyth into the north system at a rate of 750 gallons per minute. MCES set up one fire hose at a city system hydrant in River Forest and then set up a second truck less than a half mile away at the intersection of Boxankle Road and Mayfield Road where it connected to a north county system hydrant. Two trucks with a total of 2,400 feet of six-inch wide fire hose were needed to provide adequate pumping pressure.
As a precaution, Monroe County has issued a Boil Water Advisory for all North Monroe County water system customers, which includes all areas along Johnstonville Road and to the north of Johnstonville Road (excluding the Riata, River Forest, and River Walk subdivisions which are already on the City of Forsyth system). In order to protect the public from a potential health hazard, customers are advised to use only boiled tap water or bottled water for drinking, cooking or preparing food. We will let you know when the Boil Water Advisory has been lifted. The Boil Water Advisory does not apply to customers who already receive water from the City of Forsyth or customers on Monroe County’s South Water System.
Also, we are urging Monroe County’s north water system customers to continue to limit their water usage over the next several days to prevent the City of Forsyth from overtaxing its system as well.
Monroe and Butts counties are not the only ones in the state having issues with their water systems during a holiday weekend of freezing temperatures. More than a dozen Georgia counties, including nearby Jones, Baldwin, and Clayton, have reportedly experienced water system problems over the past several days, including total loss of water in certain areas.
