To Members of the Montclair HOA Board December 07, 2017

The following is a timeline and synopsis of events regarding the repair of the Montclair Subdivision irrigation main:

October 5, 2017
At 5:09 PM Ray Musser sent out an e-mail notifying the Board and Will at WD Yards that there was a leak at the northeast corner of 805 Montclair Drive and that he had shut off the irrigation main valve and the pump.

October 9, 2017
Monday evening Ray and I went to inspect the leak area. Earlier in the day, WD Yards had dug a small exploratory hole where the water was seeping out of the ground to try to determine the direction of the water source. We opened the main valve to determine the leak’s location and a small flow of water came up in the northeast corner of the test hole. I contacted WD Yards to call for locates and set up an excavation team to find and repair the water leak. The locates were completed by the end of the day of the 13th.

October 16, 2017
Monday morning WD Yards is on site with “pot-hole” equipment and starts excavating for the leak. The leak is located approximately 42” below grade, right below the preliminary exploratory hole and water is spraying out of a joint in the pipe. The irrigation pipe is in a straight line with the irrigation box and the northeast corner of 805 Montclair Drive. The defective joint is about 5-6 feet from the corner of the house. The irrigation pipe is 6” in diameter and has a male/female joint that uses a rubber o-ring in the female bell of the pipe to seal the joint. The bell is upstream. The rubber o-ring had apparently blown out. We tried to shut the main valve to repair the pipe, but also discovered it wouldn’t shut off. I called the Palisade Irrigation District to shut off their valve. It was at this time we discovered the main valve in the irrigation box was defective. (The Irrigation District replaced the main valve the week of the 23rd) Once the water is shut off, WD Yards cleans out the excavation area and cuts out the defective joint. I asked WD Yards to run a rod up the pipe to see if there was a 45 degree joint in the pipe between the cut out and the house at 805 Montclair Drive (hoping the irrigation main turned and ran parallel to the house). A joint was not located and it was feared that the pipe ran under the house. (This turned out later not to be true.)

October 17, 2017
The morning of October 17, WD Yards installs a repair sleeve over the pipe. The Palisade Irrigation District turns the water back on so that we can confirm the repair isn’t leaking. We determined that the repair was a success and WD Yards filled in the excavation area and replaced the ground cover.

October 30, 2017
Palisade Irrigation District shut off irrigation water for the season.
November 3 & 6, 2017
Palisade Irrigation District excavates and removes their main irrigation valve to our system. It was discovered the valve was defective during our pipe repair. They leave the excavation open and do not replace the valve to allow us to use their area to run the camera through the pipe on the 7th.

November 7, 2017
ACS Sewer & Irrigation Services, Inc. arrives to camera and locate our irrigation feed mains. They try to enter the pipe from the outside of the concrete box via the Irrigation District’s excavation, but the valve inside the box won’t allow the camera to go through the pipe. There isn’t enough room. The Irrigation District removes the section of pipe inside the box to allow access to camera the pipe. ACS cameras and locates the pipe from the box going south to the vent pipe located between 813 and 817 Montclair. At this point the pipe heads west towards the pump house. After the pipe leaves the box, it diagonals toward the northeast corner of 805 Montclair. Approximately 36” from the corner of the house there is a 45 degree joint and the pipe heads due south paralleling the back of the houses. Approximately 36” away at 805 and 807 Montclair and veering to approximately 90” from the southeast corner of 813 Montclair. See video of the ACS scoping and sketch of the actual route.

In the pond we cut off the distribution head of the outlet end of the pipe and ACS scans the pipe from that end. The pipe runs north/south to a 90 degree elbow at the northeast corner of the pump house and then the pipe heads east. The end destination is the vent pipe between 813 and 817 Montclair.

We cut out a section of the pressure line going east and tried to scope the pipe to determine how close it is to 818 Montclair, however there were 4 each 90 degree angles in the pipe and we were unable to feed the camera.

November 9, 2017
I consulted with the Irrigation District regarding using their easement to relocate our line if the need arose. We were given approval via an e-mail. The Irrigation District will not proceed with repairing their valve until we notify them of what we intend to do with our system. If we choose to use the same location as our access point, we will need to remove the concrete box and install our own valve. After discussions at the December 5, 2017 HOA Board meeting, we will also investigate the option of moving the access point due north of the pump house.

Michael A. Davis
857 Montclair Drive

Attachments:

• Sketch of route of irrigation main based on scoping
• Various photos of the failure site, etc.
• Video of ACS Scoping