Many Kingsport residents were without water, or water pressure this morning. A large water main broke last night, and public works crews had a hard time finding the source.
It happened under the Wilcox Drive bridge, at the Sluice, which is an offshoot of the Holston River. Homes from Wilcox Drive, to Reservoir Road, to Memorial Boulevard and Fort Henry Drive were affected.
At 9:30 last night, employees at the Kingsport water plant noticed that the water level in three tanks dropped dramatically at the same time. They knew something was wrong, but it took public works crews until 5:30 Tuesday morning to find the line that broke.
Crews isolated the leak, and soon after, water began returning to homes throughout the city. Kingsport Public Works Director, Ryan McReynolds says the water main lost 2 million gallons of water each hour overnight. He says the city has reserve tanks that hold 16 million gallons of water, and the water plant can fill 20 million gallons in a day.
"We've got enough water lines that can bypass this one break," says McReynolds, "that everybody, except for a few businesses right here at this specific location, will have water while we're working to fix it."
Traffic on Wilcox Drive will continue to be delayed through the day, as Appalachian Power works to fix an electric pole. Water pressure caused the pole to move, and lines above wilcox road hung low.
The public works department will fix the water line over the next few days.
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