By Mary Alice Murphy

According to Robert Esqueda, town of Silver City utilities director, a 12-inch water transmission line split around noon on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2018 by the Swan Street Pump Station. The line leads to the water tanks on W Mountain.

"When the pipe was installed in the 1980s, for some reason they encased it in concrete," Esqueda said. "That is what took so long. We had to jackhammer about 12 feet of concrete to get to the pipe and repair it."

The split in the pipe was about 6-8 feet long.

"We got the repair done by about 9:15 p.m.," Esqueda said. "Then we had to backfill dirt to support the pipe. They started turning the water back on slowly to keep the pressure down and clear out air. People down low got the water back first. The water finished filling the pipes by about midnight to 12:30 a.m."

He explained that most water pipe breaks happen in weather similar to what is happening now. Cold nights and warm days increase ground movement. Where the split occurred, the pipe was resting on a large rock, which probably also increased the pressure on the pipe, he said.

"Had we not encountered the concrete casing," Esqueda said. "we would have had it repaired much sooner."