[HollyMutual-Announce] Partial System Reactivation

[Mark Derbyshire]

All:

As detailed in the note I sent yesterday (pasted in below), our plan for
today was to activate the Piedmont Well and test for leaks with the
various isolation valves closed. We have waited several hours and no
leaks have appeared, so we plan to leave the system operating tonight.
Tomorrow we will open one of these isolation valves to further narrow
the location of the leak. If the leak appears we will close that
isolation valve and continue operation. Otherwise we will repeat the
process until we identify the pipe section that is causing the leak.
With the new isolation valve installed yesterday, we're expecting we can
provide at least partial water service while we locate and fix the leak.

As previously described, there are several properties that will not have
water today. Tomorrow we're hoping to restore some of these to service,
but that will depend on the leak testing results. Also, in the current
configuration we can only run the Piedmont Well, which halves our water
supply capacity. It's very unlikely we can sustain the normal 10 hours
of service per night with just one well. Please use only what you
absolutely need, and if you are able to use Denver Water instead, that
will be helpful for those who can't. Otherwise if the Piedmont Well is
overrun with demand, we will be forced to reduce its operating hours. If
we're lucky in the next couple of days, there is hope we will be able to
run both wells again while we await the leak repair. I will keep
everyone posted on our progress.

Cheers,
Mark Derbyshire


On 6/16/20 4:12 PM, Mark Derbyshire wrote:
> All:
>
> As planned the excavator began work today installing a new cutoff valve
> where our main pipeline intersects Plateau Dr from the south. We expect
> this will allow us to more precisely isolate the leaking section of
> pipe, and restore partial or perhaps even full operation of the Holly
> Mutual system, while in parallel we narrow down the leak location.
>
> This work was complicated by the uncertainty of where this section of
> our pipeline is. Just this past Sunday we uncovered a low resolution map
> showing the approximate location 200' east of where we thought it was.
> With nothing better we gambled on the map. It took a lot of digging, but
> the excavator located the pipe mid-afternoon and started installing the
> cutoff valve. Colorado Water Well has been monitoring progress, and they
> plan to activate the Piedmont Well tomorrow (Wednesday) morning.
>
> We will first need to verify the leak is isolated, but we are hoping we
> can resume partial operation of our system soon afterwards. I will write
> another email to confirm this. The first caveat is we will initially be
> operating with only one well, limiting the amount of water we can supply
> each day. Thus if you are able to minimize Holly Mutual water usage
> and/or continue to use Denver Water for a short while longer, it will
> help us supply water to as many properties as we can. The second caveat
> is certain properties will initially be cutoff from the water supply by
> isolation valves:
>
> 1. Those properties north and west of Whitehall Dr
>
> 2. Three properties immediately east of El Camino Dr and immediately
> north of Plateau Dr
>
> We believe we have identified the valve that was previously preventing
> service to properties on the east side of our service area, and those
> are expected to have service when we activate the Piedmont Well. Once we
> are convinced the leak is isolated we will start opening the remaining
> closed isolation valves. While not conclusive, we have evidence
> suggesting we may next be able to restore service to properties in group
> 1 above. If that is successful, we will also be able to activate the
> Whitehall Well and provide nearly full service to most of our
> shareholders. That is the best information we have, but it could change
> in real time as we learn more.
>
> Cheers,
> Mark Derbyshire
>