Two substantial water leaks have been located and repaired recently by the city of Russellville.

The leaks were located on Bethel and Fourth streets and there is “no telling” how much water has been lost as a result of the breaches said Mayor Gene Zick.

The leak on fourth street was coming from a four-inch line that had a screw tap which is something rarely seen now a days.

“We received a call telling us that we were supplying water to the creek,” chuckled Zick. Turns out the caller was on the mark as further inspection found the leaking line under the bed of the town creek.

The leak on Bethel Street is under the road and the city opted not to dig it up and repair it but instead bypass the line because of its age and also the up and coming construction project in that area involving a local bank.

“We cannot know for sure how long these lines have been leaking and we cannot be sure how much water was lost into the ground and creek,” said Zick. “But I expect to see a large drop in our unaccounted for water numbers now that these two lines have been repaired.”

In February the city located another large leak on Rhea Boulevard that registered between 300 to 400 gallons a minute being lost into the ground and several others in January.

The leaks are located by a new piece of equipment which is used to listen to line flows and measure them by scales.

It was estimated the city was loosing approximately 24,000 gallons of water per hour from the Rhea Blvd. leak, which calculates to 576,000 gallons within a 24 hour period.

“Some of the city’s lines are old and we are constantly fighting to bring them up to date,” said Zick. “This is one of the reasons I fight so hard to put money into capital outlay during budget time so we can continue to fight these problems.”

The city purchases around 300 million gallons of water from the Logan Todd Regional Water Commission (LTRWC) for $1,090,000 annually. It is Zick’s hope the located leaks will help lower that number eventually.