KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - Ouzinkie requested emergency assistance after the mayor said the town’s dam had to be completely drained after shifting ice broke a gate valve.
Ouzinkie Mayor Dan Clarion said in an email the dam was drained Wednesday and some homes in the city of Spruce Island, adjacent to Kodiak Island, were without water Friday, The Kodiak Daily Mirror reported (https://bit.ly/2npLiUs).
Officials were able to get a backup pumping station working after initially encountering issues with the emergency station.
Clarion said low temperatures in the Kodiak Island city have also caused sections of the water main to freeze and contributed to leaks throughout the entire system.
Had the backup pump not been fixed Friday, Clarion anticipated the city would have run out of water over the weekend.
Michelle Weston of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium said the city has taken water conservation measures because the backup system recharges water at a slower rate. The consortium, which helped build the dam, is providing engineering assistance as the city works to repair the system, she said.
It is not yet clear when repairs will be completed, but “crews are actively working on it right now,” according to Weston.
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This story has been corrected to show that Ouizinkie is on Spruce Island, not Kodiak Island.
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Information from: Kodiak (Alaska) Daily Mirror, https://www.kodiakdailymirror.com
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