NIPIGON – The Public Works department in Nipigon is trying to detect a potential water leak after noticing an increase in water and wastewater production at the treatment plant, according to the public works superintendent, Shane Hardy.
Hardy said the problem could be a potential water leak somewhere in the town's water infrastructure due to the mixture of low overnight temperatures and no snow.
However, he suggested that the higher-than-normal demand for water could be the result of residents running their taps to keep their pipes from freezing.
Therefore, to solve the issues, the Town of Nipigon is asking residents to shut off their taps this weekend.
“We're trying to take people running their taps out of the equation to see if we have a leak somewhere,” said Hardy.
Hardy explained that over the last couple of weeks, staff have been opening up manholes to monitor the flow of water, but “things haven't really changed.”
“That's why we're thinking possibly, maybe everybody's scared about the frost being down too low with no snow. The frost always goes down more in the spring too. It'll drive the frost down. We're thinking maybe people are scared to have their lines frozen,” admitted Hardy.
The township is expecting to have a leak-detection unit in town on Monday to see if the Public Works Department's suspicions were right.
