Pine Haven water pump fails over holidays

Pine Haven’s Bill Cunningham had only filled the office of mayor for a day when the town’s water pump, which had been replaced in well #2 in November, stopped running on Wednesday.

According to HDR Engineering’s Heath Turbiville, the electrical subcontractor had been trying to troubleshoot, but was unable to correct the problem that had started the weekend before New Year’s Eve.

The good news is that the pump is covered by a one year warranty and the project contractor made arrangements on Thursday, January 3, for a local crew to visit the site and pull the pump. They completed the job by that evening.

“It was determined that the motor was bad,” said Turbiville.

A new motor was picked up in Billings, MT and delivered to Pine Haven the same day; it was installed on Friday morning and the well was operational again by the afternoon. Because of the warranty, this incident cost the town nothing.

Cunningham stated that Pine Haven was not out of water very long. The new pump has 100 horse power, lowering the pressure to the level the town residents had before the larger pump had been implemented. He is also looking into the new well, “to find out why we don’t have [a pump] in there, a back up and all that” to ensure that the town does not lose water in the future.