Mount Baker Water Association

A second leak was found on the north side of Mount Baker Highway just before descending to the Nooksack Bridge. Again we saw signs of water this winter, but nothing definitive. We even used our new leak detector listening device to search the area to no avail. We dug a small hole by hand and kept an eye on it. Then again in the end of may, the owner called saying the field to the west was very muddy and a 4 square foot area just east of the hole was mushy. In this case, it went sideways as we weren't sure where the main was as well as the service line going under the highway. Therefore, when we dug up the line, we pulled it off the main line. Since the saddle was ok, we were able to replace the shutoff and keep looking for the rest of the service line and leak. We found that the service line was tied into the old service line that was still connected to the old main. The connection was over 6 feet deep to go under the highway and that's why we didn't hear anything. We removed the old lines and connected poly under the highway to the main with new poly. the connection from the old copper line to the poly under the road was the source of the leak.

Leak: South side of Mt Baker Highway, just east of Kelly Road in the latter part of May. I had seen water pooling during the winter, but no sign of a leak. Then reading meters in May, there it was, bubbling up now. It turned out the service line (poly) had cracked.