Pickett County Schools dismissed students Friday afternoon after a motor failure at the local water plant reduced filtration capacity and caused low pressure throughout the system.
Plant Superintendent Buster Harmon said the facility utilizes two separate skids to filter water for the community. Harmon said the plant began receiving reports of low water pressure as storage tanks reached critical levels.
“One skid went down, one of our filtration skids went down because a motor went out on it all of a sudden,” Harmon said. “They had to wind up going to Memphis and get a new motor.”
Harmon said the plant operated at half capacity for two days while waiting for the replacement part to arrive. The new motor was delivered Friday morning and technicians began the process of restoring the system to maximum output.
“Actually about as of about 15 minutes ago, we got the motor up and running and we’re starting to filter back at maximum capacity,” Harmon said. “Basically, the last couple days, we’ve had half capacity going out, and it just caught up.”
While the new motor is now running, the system requires time to normalize and build pressure before the tanks can be refilled.
“It takes a while for the system to catch up, just because we turn the switch and it’s running,” Harmon said. “You have to build the pressure up in the system before it starts going into the tanks and everything like that.”
Harmon said residents should see water pressure return to normal levels within a few hours. The superintendent asked the public to limit usage for the remainder of the day to assist with the recovery.
“Just for the next 12 hours to sort of conserve as much water as possible,” Harmon said. “That will help the total population get water back quicker.”