Towns Deal With Water Issues After Storm

(Host) Water and sewer lines in many towns have been damaged by the storm.  

The south central town of Wilmington had both its drinking water and sewer line knocked out.  Local residents are being told to boil their water for the immediate future. 

In Bennington, local residents are being asked to conserve while town officials repair the main water intake source.  

In Rutland, the city faces not only a looming water shortage, but the tragic storm-related death of the man who ran their water treatment plant.

VPR's Nina Keck reports.

(Keck) Rutland Mayor Chris Louras drives down a wooded dirt road that opens suddenly to a picturesque body of water.

(Louras) "There's our reservoir and you can see the level that it's down from its normal level. "

(Keck)  The water level is dropping because both the main and back up intake pipes were damaged when flood waters brought boulders the size of refrigerators and 80-foot trees raging down Mendon brook and nearby East Creek.

(Louras) "This was just such a catastrophe for the water treatment plant itself. We've got 30 days of water at the very most in the city of Rutland. And we've lost both our primary and our backup supply systems to the reservoir. And we lost the guy who'd be the best at making sure it gets fixed."

(Keck)  Mike Garofano ran the city's reservoir and was a municipal employee for over 20 years.    The day before the storm, Louras says, Garofano closed inlet valves at the reservoir to protect it from storm runoff.

(Louras)  "He went back the next day during the torrential downpours when Mendon Brook was violently rushing over its banks. Took his adult son with him. And he just had to not just double check, but triple check the status of his reservoir water system. And obviously a bank gave way and he and his son Michael were swept away and killed."

(Keck) The elder Garafono's body was found. But son Michael remains missing. Garafono's death means the city has only one water treatment operator.   Rutland City public works commissioner Alan Shelvey says crews are working hard to repair the intake pipes. But he says their biggest obstacles are actually out of their control: Repairing route four and the private Alpine sewer pipe that brings wastewater down from Killington.  

(Shelvey) "The alpine pipeline people are working closely with us and have jumped  right on this, are in the process of putting a temporary sewer line in to make that place secure."

(Keck) By the time all of those repairs are made, Shelvey hopes the streams will have cleared up enough to draw water.  

In the meantime, red and white signs dot the city reminding local residents to conserve water as much as possible.  

For VPR News, I'm Nina Keck in Rutland.