A pressure spike, caused by one of the Lambton Area Water Supply System's emergency backup pumps, was responsible for 10 simultaneous water main breaks on Thursday, March 2.
Sarnia's General Manager of Engineering and Operations David Jackson said at around 10:30 that morning, they received several calls about water main breaks across the city.
"In the end we had about 10 water main breaks and whenever we have multiple breaks like that, we reach out to the water treatment plant, the Lambton Area Water Supply, just to see if anything happened at the plant," said Jackson.
He said the problem was linked to scheduled maintenance at the Point Edward facility.
"As part of that process they stimulate a power outage," said Jackson. "What happened was, one of the emergency backup pumps kicked on and it created a pressure surge in the system."
Nine of the 10 breaks were fully repaired before Friday's snow storm hit.
"You never want these things to happen, but in general, yeah we were lucky that we had enough time before the snow to get most of them done," said Jackson. "It was a busy week because a lot of our staff are involved in both operations, water mains and snow plowing. It was certainly a busy week for everyone, but generally, it all worked out as best as it could."
One water main break in the downtown area forced the Sarnia Public Library to close Thursday and Friday, while repairs were completed.
