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City of Cortez Repairs Broken Water Line Friday Evening

Austin Cope
/
KSJD
Cones line the site of Friday evening's water line break Monday

A small geyser seemed to erupt from the intersection of Pinyon, Maple and North streets in Cortez on Friday night. This was not geothermal activity, but rather a large break in a city water main.

Cortez City Manager Shane Hale said the 10-inch water main broke on Friday evening. Police and construction crews worked together to detour traffic around the street, and the utility workers patched the pipe later that night. The line was fully repaired by Saturday.  

Cortez Director of Public Works Phil Johnson said the breakage discolored the city’s water through the weekend. He explained the discoloration happened because the water pressure scoured the inside of the pipes as half a million gallons rushed out of the broken main. That released some rust-like minerals into the city’s water system.  

Johnson said those minerals were not harmful to people. He said the amount of chlorine available in the system, which kills potentially-harmful bacteria in the water system, was above the minimum required by law. And he said the force from the released water did not allow any water or contaminants to re-enter the water system.

Hale said the city contacts dispatch and issue an immediate boil order if the water is ever deemed unsafe to drink.

As of Tuesday, the patch in the street remains coned off, but there are no blockages to traffic.

Austin Cope is a former Morning Edition host for KSJD and now produces work on a freelance basis for the station. He grew up in Cortez and hosted a show on KSJD when he was 10 years old. After graduating from Montezuma-Cortez High School in 2010, he lived in Belgium, Ohio, Spain, northern Wyoming, and Himachal Pradesh, India before returning to the Cortez area. He has a degree in Politics from Oberlin College in Ohio.
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