11/30/00 BILL PLOTT News staff writer

Hundreds of western area residents were without water Wednesday as an apparent line break disrupted service from the Mulga Water and Gas System. Minimal service was expected to be restored overnight by switching to a tank in the Pleasant Grove area.

"I started getting calls about 5 o'clock this morning," said Mulga City Council member Ralph Black. "The tank was already empty by then. We still haven't found the problem but we're isolating areas to locate it. By isolating, we can pretty well tell where the problem is."

He said Mulga, Bayview and portions of Maytown were affected. He said those areas were being switched to the new tank and water pressure was expected to increase throughout the night.

"I've got a trickle here right now," he said Wednesday evening.

He said emergency management officials were bringing in water in large portable water tanks until full service is restored. The units, where people can come to collect water, were placed in Mulga, Maytown and Docena. "We're trying to get water to people before we get it to (refill) the tank," he said.

The Mulga system has been going through a nearly $6 million upgrade but the project is on hold until additional funding can be found. A similar disruption of service a few months ago left Mulga, Maytown and the Sylvan Springs area without water for several days.

The system has about 2,600 customers. Black was not sure how many were affected by Wednesday's service disruption.

http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/Nov2000/30-e433805b.html

-- Doris (nocents@bellsouth.net), November 30, 2000