Water at a trickle for some Ogden Canyon residents


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OGDEN — Ogden City is responding to unhappy residents in Ogden Canyon, who say their water pressure waned to a trickle at times following the installation of a new water line.

Some homeowners complained after seeing very low flows out of faucets, shower heads and garden hoses.

"As you can see, the pressure is not normal," Julie Jensen said Monday, holding up her hose. Going "full blast," water appeared to be pouring out of the hose at a moderate rate.

Jensen said she had been dealing with the low pressure since she and her daughter, Katie Kelley, moved in a month ago. "If this is normal, it's not up to standards by any means," Jensen said.

Kelley said the water pressure was worse inside the house.

"When you're trying to take a shower, it's not as good," Kelley said. "It doesn't rinse your hair as good."

Ogden City Water Utility manager Kenton Moffett said the city was working to sort out the concerns of homeowners following the $8 million project. Some of the very low water pressure cases, he suggested, may have been due to air pockets.

Moffett said the city's recent measurements of water pressure have recorded levels normal to the canyon area. "We've been checking the pressure at our connections to make sure it's adequate from what it was consistently historically, and we've found that that's generally the case," he said.

Water pressure has always been an issue in the canyon, he said.

Low pressure is something Dwaine Harrington has observed since he started living in the canyon during summers 10 years ago.

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"It's never been strong," Harrington said. "We have two pressure pumps - one for the sprinkler system and one for the house. It's been sufficient, but a lot of water pressure - we've never experienced that."

Harrington said the new water line resulted in even lower pressure.

"We lost the pressure," Harrington said. "My sprinkler system was non-functional. Even with my pressure pumps - they just don't work - so I had to hand-water the lawn to keep it from burning out. But it really lost a lot of the pressure."

Though Harrington said he'd been told improving water pressure was on its way, he remained skeptical.

"I don't know. They promised us we would have great water pressure when the new pipeline was completed and it's worse," Harrington said. "And now they're talking another year-and-a-half, two years before we see results. What I hear - they say we'll have the same water pressure as Ogden Valley or Ogden City, but I doubt it."

Moffett said the historically low water pressure will be fixed when the city completes a rebuild of the filter plant at the top of the canyon. The project, he said, was in the process of gaining approval from the city council. When approved, Moffett said the plan after the rebuild would ultimately be to boost pressure by 45 pounds per square inch - something not achievable under the previous, 100-year-old line.

About two-thirds of the city's water comes through the line. Moffett said the old one was losing 1 million gallons of water per day through leaks.

"If that pipe had broken, as old is it was, they wouldn't have had any water," Moffett said.

Ogden Fire deputy chief Eric Bauman said water pressure had never been an issue fighting fires in the canyon, but the number of available hydrants had been. It forced crews at times to draw water from the river.

Bauman said crews now have a significantly higher number of hydrants available to them, boosting safety in Ogden Canyon.

Moffett said he appreciated the patience of residents, and said crews would continue to assist them with troubles.

"We're concerned that they're not getting the pressure that they need, so we're trying to fix that problem," Moffett said.

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