Water authority issues statement on increasing water leaks

The Harvest-Monrovia Water Authority issued a Level 2 Water Conservation Plan on August 14. Customers report that water leaks are still occurring.

HARVEST, Alabama — The Harvest-Monrovia Water Authority issued a statement Sept. 5 acknowledging leaks throughout its area and seeking a third crew to resolve the problems, initially moving to a Stage 2 conservation plan on Aug. 14.

Residents of the Cross Creek Subdivision are not happy about the call to conserve water, especially after dealing with leaks that they say have been going on for some time, some for over a year.

“I don't expect residents here to be digging up their own lawns to find out where the water is coming from or where it is,” said HOA President Jim Frederick. “They're told we're going to get there as soon as we can, but there's never a date.”

One sewer has been leaking water for 2-3 years, while others have yet to see any liquid. Residents report that their neighbors' lawns have been showing the effects of water leaks since August 2023. “Things are being reported, but they just aren't being fixed,” Frederick said.

Locals say the problems only got worse after a company laid Comcast cables. Two other locations also have boggy lawns and slippery moss.

We contacted the company that installed the cable and they are “not aware of any water issues.”

As Level 2 water conservation efforts continue in the Harvest-Monrovia Water/Sewer Authority district, officials say they have purchased water from nearby utilities to keep up with demand.

In a public update released on Friday, the utility said that while it had been “able to maintain tank levels over the past few days, [they] not been able to win additional money.”

The result, they continued, would be lower pressure for water customers at higher elevations.

“We have been purchasing additional water from Madison Utilities for most of the summer and on Tuesday, August 13th, we installed our portable booster pump to purchase additional water from Huntsville Utilities,” they wrote.

The hope is that the additional water supply will make it possible to fill the tanks “and not just maintain the current level”.

Crews will work throughout the weekend to complete the additional water intake, but the agency stresses that they will need customers' help in doing so by not watering lawns on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays during Stage 2 water conservation measures.

Lawn watering is permitted on Mondays and Wednesdays for even-numbered addresses and on Tuesdays and Thursdays for odd-numbered addresses.