Water outage impacts almost 4,000 in Haughton area

HAUGHTON, La. (KSLA) — Almost 4,000 customers of Village Water System in the Haughton area have had little water pressure or no water since sometime the morning of Monday, March 6.

Three elementary schools — T.L. Rodes, Platt and Princeton — also are among those impacted by the outage.

A crew works to repair at 10-inch water main at U.S. Highway 80 at Wafer Road at Haughton on... — A crew works to repair at 10-inch water main at U.S. Highway 80 at Wafer Road at Haughton on the night of Monday, March 6, 2023.(Source: Bubba Kneipp/KSLA News 12)

The problems began when the computer system crashed sometime Monday morning, Bossier Parish administrator Butch Ford said.

Then a leak developed when the computer system was brought back online and the pipelines began to repressurize. Crews still are working to fix that split.

Once the leak is fixed, the water system likely will remain under a 72-hour boil advisory until at least Thursday.

[RELATED: What to do during, after a boil advisory]

Meantime, the parish has asked the Sheriff’s Office to look into what caused the computer system to crash Monday morning. No one was at work when it because the half dozen or so Village Water System staffers walked off the job sometime Friday and didn’t return to work Monday.

Bossier Parish already was in the process of taking over Village Water System. The walkout accelerated that process, Ford said.

The water system issues Monday exacerbated the situation.

Village Water System is a not-for-profit cooperative serving customers in the Princeton and Red Chute areas in eastern Bossier Parish.

Its websites describe its service area as follows:

“The main thoroughfare in our water system is Highway 80 or Texas St.

“Our service on Hwy 80 East runs from Bellevue Road/Bodcau Station Road to approximately 3.5 miles east of the Webster Parish line.

“On Bodcau Station Road south end approximately 0.5 miles south Oak Hill Estates and On Bellevue Road north to approximately 0.5 miles north of Busby Road including Dogwood Trail up to Eliga, and Sterling Ranch subdivision.

“Going east on Hwy 80 from Bellevue Road, we service Tall Timbers, Forest Hills, Wafer Forest, Crestwood, North & South Merrywoods, Duck Island and Creekside subdivisions.

“We service north and south on La Hwy 157 south to Timber East subdivision.

“North on LA Hwy 157 to approximately ¾ of a mile north of LA Hwy 528

“East on LA Hwy 528 to Goodwill Road

“Continuing on Hwy 80 East of LA Hwy 157 to 3.5 miles east of Webster Parish line.”

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