Huntsville water supply leak located near filter plant

HUNTSVILLE, Weber County – Huntsville water crews say they’ve located the source of a large water leak.

According to Thom Summers, the leak is about 10 feet outside of the city’s water plant building.

In a Facebook post, Huntsville Mayor Richard Sorenson said Tuesday was a “great day in Huntsville.”

Sorenson told KSL that finding it so close to their building may seem odd.

“Our [water] line is about 4,000 feet in length, so it’s a little like looking for a needle in a haystack.”

A nearby stream also hampered the search for the water leak, Sorenson said.

“It was about 150 feet from a stream, so the groundwater was just taking it [the leaked water] to the stream.”  Sorenson said.

How specialists found the Huntsville water leak

The water leak depleted the entire town’s water supply and left people without water since Friday. Leak detection specialists were testing pipes and trench digging over the weekend, and said the breakthrough was good news.

“Best I’ve seen in the five days I’ve been here,” Tana Kohler, a leak detection specialist with Cooper Con, said.

Crews used specialized microphones to listen to the underground pipes where water is flowing from the town’s treatment plant to the main storage tank, and crews think they finally found it.

“That actually sounds a little bit more like the leak,” Michael Carothers, a Sewerin equipment representative, said.

On Monday night, Huntsville leaders were cautiously optimistic because even just hours earlier in the day they thought it could’ve been somewhere else.

“We’re optimistic we’re going to find it in the next hour, but we’ve been there before,” Richard Sorensen, Huntsville Mayor, said.

The difference Monday night was what crews were hearing in the ground below.

“That’s where we have pinpointed our loudest noise levels,” Kohler said.