TIFTON, Ga. — A major water leak that was draining at least one water tower in Tifton was repaired recently, according to ESG Operations, Inc assistant project manager Andrew Marzen.

Marzen, who addressed the city council Dec. 15, explained that the company was first alerted to a problem when a water tank on the west side of Tifton, near Hwy 82 was not filling up, even though the well supplying the tank was continually running.

The city was experiencing extremely high water losses, losing 66,000 gallons of water an hour and totaling 1.6 million gallons per day when they located the problem: a broken coupling connecting two lengths of pipe in some marshlands near the Little River Bridge on Hwy. 82.

Marzen said the only reason they were able to quickly locate the problem was because it had been so dry for the two previous months.

The 12 inch mechanical pipe coupling that was the culprit was originally put in 10 years ago, and should have lasted much longer than it did, according to Marzen.

It was the only coupling on that line, and was only used because of difficulties boring the pipe underneath the marshlands near Little River.

The coupling had steel plates inside, which are heated up, causing the pipe to melt together and form one whole, unbroken piece. When the coupling was installed there was a very small gap between the two pipes that were being connected.

The volume of water running through the pipe at high pressure and eddying in the small gap eventually wore away the pipe, causing a hole to appear.

Once the problem was located, ESG contacted the Army Corps of Engineers, who originally estimated the repair would cost upwards of $250,000, according to Marzen.

That cost included buying new pipe and boring a new line through the marshlands.

ESG was able to bring in experts from within the company who had dealt with similar problems, as well as additional resources and obtained permission from the ACE to try something different.

ESG was allowed to dig a smaller area to perform maintenance, so long as they didn’t disturb more than a quarter acre of land.

They dug up the area by hand and were able to cut out the damaged coupling and put in a new section of pipe with new couplings which should last much longer.

Total repairs only cost the city $2,500 instead of the estimated $250,000, which saved the city time and money.