Water main repair set for completion overnight

SOUTHPORT – At about the time the sun rises Tuesday — if all goes according to plan — the Bay County Utilities Department will be finished replacing a section of pipe damaged last week at the county’s reservoir.

The county put a temporary patch on the 36-inch main Thursday, choosing to wait until after the weekend to commence the major repair because of high water demand at Panama City Beach. The repair was to begin at 11 p.m. on Monday and should last six to seven hours, Bay County public information officer Valerie Sale said.

“It depends on how well the project goes,” Sale said. “There’s an infinite number of things that can go wrong.”

Bay County Utilities Supervisor Paul Lackemacher said the repair is especially dangerous.

“You’re working in a hole with water,” Lackemacher said. “We do repairs on lines all the time. Because of the size of the equipment needed, it makes it more difficult.”

Other potential complications include equipment malfunctions and rain.

Bay County issued a boil water notice, starting at 11 p.m. Monday, for the Lake Merial and RiverCamps areas. The notice will be lifted when the water is safe to drink.

Panama City Beach City Manager Mario Gisbert said a boil water notice for the city will be issued only if necessary depending on the extent of the repairs.

“If this goes as planned there would not be a boil water notice,” Gisbert said. “We will not know until after they do the repair work.”

Damage to the main, which feeds West Bay and much of Southport, was originally spotted at Deer Point reservoir last Wednesday. County workers dug around the pipe and determined the size of the crack in the pipe around midnight Thursday. Lackemacher said the crack was caused by heat and pressure, which caused the pipe to flex.

The replacement piece of high density polyethylene had to be imported from out of state and costs about $10,000.