By T. Scott Boatright
Grambling Mayor Edward Jones said Thursday that the water leak in the city’s water system has been found and that work is currently being done to restore full water pressure to city residents.
Jones said city residents were already seeing positive effects of the work on Thursday afternoon.
“It’s looking good — we found the culprit,” Jones said. “Apparently it was caused by a lightning strike that hit a tree about a 1,000 feet up in the woods west of the (old Louisiana Tech) golf course.”
Jones said the quick fix for the lightning strike-caused water leak was to work around the damaged part of the water pipeline.
“We’re diverting the water line where we don’t have to go up into the woods to make the repair,” Jones said. “Valves and being placed to try and allow that to happen, and we’ll see if that works. We’re using valves to keep the water from getting to the damaged pipe in the wooded area. If we don’t get sufficient force — water pressure — when we reroute it we have an idea of how to boost it to give it the force that it needs.”
Jones said the initial “quick fix” repair should be completed no later than early next week but that he has hopes of finding a more permanent solution to the problem.
“Because this appears to be an “Act of God” kind of incident, we’re going to be able to request some financial help from the state because there is emergency funding available for circumstances like this,” Jones said. “If we get that funding we hopefully can go into the wooded area and make the full repairs we need. But the fastest way to restore water for our citizens right now is redirecting the water as we’re working to do.”
A boil water for Grambling residence remains in effect until further notice.
