By Mary O’KEEFE

About 800 customers were affected by a water outage over the weekend as Glendale Water and Power (GWP) worked to replace a damaged pipe. 

Water service for 700 to 900 customers stopped about 8 p.m. on Saturday night and wasn’t back on until around 1 a.m. on Monday morning, according to Chisom Obegolu, assistant general manager with GWP. 

“We realized we had issues around Saturday at 8 p.m.,” he said. 

GWP monitoring equipment indicated the water main in the area of Verdugo Road and Broadview Drive was losing pressure. 

“We were losing water within our system,” he said. 

Crews discovered the 12-inch pipe was damaged due to tree roots. This was a large pipe as opposed to the smaller four-to-eight inch pipes, so to release the pressure and prepare the pipe for repair took some time. 

“First we had to assess the situation,” he said.

Traffic control in the area had to be set up then excavation was done down toward the root system of the tree. 

“It took us awhile,” Obegolu said. “We really had to work a number of valves and we had to extend the shut down.”

The pressure had to be released throughout the pipe so that repairs could be made. Crews found the cracks in the cast iron pipe, which dates back to the 1970s. The pipe had to be cut about eight feet on either side of the crack, replaced and then water pressure reestablished. 

“We did try to work around the tree but we had to remove it,” Obegolu added. 

If left the trees roots would more than likely affect the pipe again.