July 2, 2015
Out-Of-Class Story #1
Iliff Water Problems
The
town of Iliff IN WHAT STATE? was
likely not expecting to go 23 days without potable water when their main water
pipe broke on May 31st. MAY
31, STED MAY 31ST, PER AP STYLE
Occurring
at the same time as heavy rains throughout the county and flooding of the South
Platte River, there has been both a dearth and surfeit of water in Logan
County. HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE AFFECTED?
“It
has been very hard on the residents because we’ve had to use porta potties Porta-Potties; IT’S A SPECIFIC BRAND NAME WITH CAPS AND A HYPHEN for sanitation.
We’ve had to haul potable water in. Our residents have been forced to go out of
town for showers,” said the mayor of Iliff, Julie Dunlap.
“It
has been extremely disruptful to people’s daily routines, plus there’s a
financial burden there as well,” said Dunlap.
It
did not help the situation that town officials did not communicate well with
Iliff residents about the situation despite efforts to do so.
“Information
to residents was slow and sometimes incomplete. It’s hard to get information to
everybody in the town especially when reverse 911 charged the town to use their
services,” said Christopher Roth, resident of Iliff.
He did
say emergency town meetings were held and information was posted on the town
hall door. “I also live next to the mayor, so I was kept up to date
frequently,” said Roth.
“We
are a small town that aren’t privy to all the codes and rules and regulations.
We had to rely on the professionals to come up with the best solution to the
problem. I’m sure city officials were just as frustrated as we were,” said
Roth.
While
a solution was being found, the majority of Iliff residents turned to the city
of Sterling for their water needs, roughly a 15-minute drive away.
Don
Saling, city manager of Sterling, saw the silver lining of the situation for
the community. “It’s a good PR opportunity. Sometimes people think we’re the
big boys on the block, that we don’t care about anybody else but that’s not
true. We do.”
The
city of Sterling has shown this care, opening its doors to Iliff residents and
sharing its water. “They’ve been coming up and getting five-gallon bladders
from us, using our recreation center, getting showers from us,” said Saling.
“We
were lucky, you know. Flooding has been occurring on the south banks of the
South Platte. We’ve been lucky,” said Saling, referring to Sterling being
largely undamaged by flooding or heavy rains.
The
water main break was the core of Iliff’s water troubles, but flooding and heavy
rains exacerbated the situation and affected the rest of Logan County in
differing amounts.
The
extent of the flooding combined with the water main break has been a surprise
for locals, as neither has happened in the county before.
“We’ve
never had a water main break under the river before in Iliff,” said Dunlap,
“Like all communities, we’ve experienced our share of small leaks in town but
those are usually a few hours repair.”
The
current situation is a very different one. The State of Colorado’s Department
of Public Safety has been requesting notification from locals about any damage
to the their homes or to the town to their county’s emergency services. HOW DO YOU KNOW THIS? ATTRIBUTE!
The
flooding has had more impact on public services such as roads than on homes,
according to the Logan County Emergency Manager Cody Adams.
“The
biggest impact is not residential but infrastructure, with thousands of dollars
of damage,” said Adams.
HOW MUCH DAMAGE AND TO WHAT? BE SPECIFIC
“In
retrospect we’ve been very lucky with the damage. We’ve been dealing with
floodage at big levels for two months now with little residential damage,” said
Adams.
A
lot of progress has been made to fix the situation, but there is only so much
that can be done presently.
“We
had our temporary line installed and had that up and running and had water back
in Iliff. We will have to do permanent work but we will probably have to wait
for the water levels in the river to recede and that could be accomplished sometime
in August,” said Dunlap.
Adams
said emergency services are taking a long-term approach to this problem.
“We’re
looking at various mitigation projects to look at and identify the issues we
see now and what we can fix, anything from clearing rivers and improving roads
to be able to handle large damage better,” said Adams.
(714 words)
Source Sheet
Julie Dunlap, Iliff Mayor; (970)
522-2283
Don Saling, Sterling City Manager;
(970) 522-9700
Cody
Adams, Logan County Emergency Manager; (970) 520-0991, LoganOEM@logancountyco.gov
Christopher Roth, Iliff Resident;
(970) 571-1972
ASSIGNMENT GRADE: (REDACTED)
INSTRUCTOR COMMENTS: VERY NICE JOB OF WRITING AND INTERVIEWING,
BUT WE NEED A BIT MORE REPORTING. FIRST, MORE SPECIFICS: HOW MANY PEOPLE
AFFECTED? COST TO THE COMMUNITY? SECOND, WE COULD REALLY USE A NEUTRAL EXPERT
ON URBAN PLANNING AND RESOURCES (PERHAPS AT THE UNIVERSITY LEVEL) NOT CONNECTED
TO THIS BUT WHO COULD HELP PUT THIS IN PERSPECTIVE, WHETHER THIS IS SOMETHING
THAT’S USUAL OR NOT, WHY IT’S HAPPENING, HOW MUCH WESTERN TOWNS ARE VULNERABLE
TO THIS, WHETHER IT’S A GROWING TREND, ETC. BUT THIS IS A GOOD START.
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