Yes Virginia, RVM Does Have Geysers

By Joni Johnson

I live at the end of Horizon Lane. Going to Arden on Friday, November 17 about 5 pm, I noticed an enormous amount of water spewing down the road and pooling quite vigorously in front of Malama Way.  By evening it seemed to have stopped.  Saturday was a different matter.  I woke up to an enormous geyser almost fifteen feet high (see Jill Stoecker’s impressive photos).  Naturally, I rushed to the street to see it in person.  Luckily, so did Drew Gilliand and his crew.

We have two water pipes running under our street.  One is fire hydrant water and the second is our domestic water.  After realizing that the problem was linked to our domestic water lines, they turned off our water to all of the cottages on the 1100 and 1200 blocks for what was supposed to be six  hours. I was already checking to see if I had any spare water available for drinking and immediate use in case it took longer than expected. And Drew was offering water in case it was needed. But lo and behold, it was done in three hours.  The water was back in the pipes, and we just had a metal covering over the hole in the road to deal with when driving down Horizon.  It turned out that the failure of the extension from the fire  hydrant pipes which had caused the first leaks had also created a problem with the extension from the domestic pipes and that caused our geyser. In fact, the root cause of the leaks was failed connectors between air relief valves and the fire and domestic water line.

The next day (December 4) , I found a worker getting rid of the wet earth and replacing it with new fill so that they could eventually pave over the street.  The reason for the new fill was to keep the paving dry enough so that it wouldn’t sink in that spot.

Other than a few garages having to deal with some leakage (which the facilities crew worked on, brought fans and dehumidifiers  and redid the wooden molding where necessary) no one else had any property damage.  For residents, it was a little exciting blip to our weekend.  Another great reason to live at the Manor.