Community Responds to Crisis in Record Speed
Residents Receive Amazing Support in Grappling with Waterless Plight
Trevor Phipps
Just when officials with the city of Victor were working on doing the right thing by repairing the town’s 50-year-old water mains, tragedy struck.
A water line break that occurred during the replacement process ended up causing the towns of Victor and Goldfield to deal with periodic water outages for nearly a week. And to add to these woes, speculation mounted that this shortage could last for several weeks.
As of press time, water service was braced for a return, but a boiling order still remained in place. The situation brought back memories of Victor’s past years, when a faulty deteriorating infrastructure frequently led to a water-less plight.
The water crisis started on May 7, when crews were working to replace the city’s water mains that were put in place sometime in the 1970s. “The crews were doing work on the lines, and they removed a ton of dirt,” Victor’s City Administrator Bobby Tech said. “As soon as they removed the dirt, the line beneath the dirt crumbled. As the dirt was the only thing holding it into place. It’s just a good example of how not great the city’s infrastructure is. It’s very sensitive. And then from there, there was just a cascade of failures caused by that one failure.”
Residents in Victor and Goldfield then had to deal with on-and-off water outages for the next few days following May 7. For the next two days after the initial break, worker crews tried to repair the problems.
However, on May 10, the city of Victor was forced to declare a state of emergency. The declaration allowed city officials to get help from state resources to resolve the issues.
Then on May 10 and 11, city officials told residents of Victor and Goldfield that none of the water in either town was safe to consume whatsoever. The fire department provided potable water for residents to use around their homes. Local construction companies and fire departments also had non-potable water on hand so residents could use it to flush toilets or feed animals.
City officials also told residents that they couldn’t wash dishes, do laundry or take showers. The Aspen Mine Center in Cripple Creek and the Cripple Creek Recreation Center opened their doors to those in Victor and Goldfield that needed to take showers. Moreover, the Aspen Mine Center prepared meals for those who couldn’t cook for themselves.
Good news then came to the City of Mines and its Goldfield neighbors on May 11. Victor officials announced that evening that water had been restored to Goldfield residents.
On May 12, the officials had planned that they would finish final repairs that would restore water to all Victor residents by that evening. “The repairs we made (on May 11) did hold overnight,” said the Victor city administrator. “Our goal is that we are going to finish some repairs on a temporary bypass that allows us to reconnect a smaller line into our pressure reducing valve and get water restored to Victor today hopefully.”
Greater Teller County Community Reaches Out to Victor with Open Arms
When City Administrator Tech was asked to name the businesses and nonprofit organizations that helped the city during the water outages, the list wasn’t short. Nonprofit agencies, such as the Aspen Mine Center, Community Caring, Dawn of Hope and the American Red Cross offered assistance.
The surrounding city governments and county officials also did all that they could to help the residents get through the unprecedented water outages. The governments provided labor and equipment to aid in the repair process. Tech also mentioned that the neighboring fire departments in the region became a “tremendous asset” for the city when it was in need.
Tech especially wanted to thank all of Victor’s city staff and other entities that provided much-needed labor to conduct the repairs. He said some Victor city staff members worked 24 hours straight to restore water service.
The Mid City Corporation construction company, which was tasked with conducting the initial repairs on the line, also played a major role in getting the system back up and running. The construction company ended up returning to help with the repairs. Tech said that the Mid City crews worked 36 hours straight to help resolve the water issues.
“I think a lot of people would say that this week has been a dark week,” Tech said. “But I would say it’s been a good week for us. We have seen what happens when these communities need help and how they rally to support each other. And I think that’s a pretty beautiful thing in this day and age.”
