At approximately 2 a.m. on Sunday morning, the Town of Golden was made aware of an issue with apparent system water loss. Standby staff would have received a low reservoir alarm indicating serious system water loss.
Several members of the Public Works crew worked to shut off street valves throughout the lower community of Golden to eliminate possible locations for a water main break, according to the Town.
Around 8:30 a.m. on Sunday the issue had been isolated to the Lady Grey School private fire service line. It is estimated that the system lost approximately 3.6ML (800,000 gall) of water from the time the break occurred until the time the connection to the school was shut off.
The break is only impacting Lady Grey, meaning that there is no need to conserve water for any other properties in Golden.
The cause of the break has been established as a bolt, which broke due to rust, according to Rocky Mountain School District No. 6. That bolt holds together a thrust connection on the main water pipe that feeds the building sprinkler system, and was 30 years old.
The break in the water main triggered the fire alarm in the early hours of Sunday morning and by the time the Fire Department got to the school there was approximately three feet of water in crawlspace.
Public Works crews and the Golden Fire Department offered assistance to the School District after the shutdown, with the Fire Department helping with pumps to pump out the crawl space, says the Town.
Arrangements have been made to relocate classes at Lady Grey to Golden Secondary School and Alexander Park Elementary school.
Buses will drop off at these locations instead of Lady Grey and students who arrive to Lady Grey in the morning will be bused across to GSS or APES and dropped off at Lady Grey at the end of the day.
Significant damage to the building is being reported.
READ MORE: Power returns to Golden after approximately 30 hours
