Florence, AZ – The Town of Florence would like to provide an update on the water line break that occurred on Wednesday, March 27, and address the recent series of water breaks that have been affecting our community. We understand our residents are understandably frustrated with these incidents and deserve further explanation regarding the causes and challenges associated with these events.
First, regarding March 27’s outage, this break was caused by a contractor inadvertently hitting an unmarked valve during construction work. Upon investigation, it was revealed that the valve in question was not marked in the town’s Geographic Information System (GIS) or identified during the project’s design survey. As a result, the valve was unfortunately impacted while the contractor was removing asphalt during a roadway excavation.
Both this outage and many recent incidents stem from a common set of challenges facing the town. These challenges include the age of our system, which can make it difficult to locate lines and isolate leaks, as well as the configuration and documentation of our system, which can lead to the unexpected or unknown presence of water lines in an area. It’s important to note that in the majority of these cases, these incidents are not attributable to the contractors working within our community.
To reduce the number and severity of water breaks, the town has undertaken several proactive efforts. First, town utility staff have meticulously modeled the system to identify capacity deficiencies, dead-end water lines, aging infrastructure, hydrant spacing, and the types of materials used. All of these variables play a crucial role in determining what lines need to be replaced and which projects should be prioritized. Additionally, the town allocates $600,000 every other year to address undersized water lines and issues related to aging infrastructure.
In addition, the town is currently in the process of identifying water lines that are difficult to isolate in the event of a break. This involves a multi-step process involving engineering, planning, and detailed fieldwork. Staff is also actively adding valves in the areas of Adamsville Road and Central Avenue, with plans to continue this process as additional areas are identified. While adding valves is a time-consuming and costly process, the town remains steadfast in prioritizing this work to enhance our water system’s resilience. Although significant progress has been made on this front, we recognize that there is still much work to be done to improve our water distribution system and minimize the impact of future incidents.
In light of these challenges and to ensure our residents are prepared for future emergency events, the town would also like to remind our residents about the Pinal Emergency Notification System (PENS). This system provides automatic emergency alerts to subscribers within Pinal County. These alerts are generated by on-site staff and are typically distributed before being shared on our social media channels. To ensure you receive timely updates and important, local emergency alerts, we encourage all residents to sign up for PENS. To learn more or sign up, please visit the county’s website.
We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused by today’s incident and assure residents that we are working diligently to address these issues and minimize future water incidents. The Town of Florence remains committed to the safety and well-being of our residents and will continue to prioritize the maintenance and improvement of our utility infrastructure.