Power failure leads to Rosalia water drain

A power outage caused Rosalia residents to go without water for a short time this weekend.

According to Rosalia Mayor Nan Konishi, the town experienced a power outage about 1:30 a.m. on Friday which was repaired by Avista at 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon.

“Everything appeared to be fine until I got a phone call on Sunday from a person who lives up on the hill who had no water,” Konishi said.

The pumps at the water plant had not turned on after the power outage and the town’s reservoir was empty.

Konishi said an automatic alarm normally alerts the maintenance department when the water pumps aren’t working, but the alarm malfunctioned.

Repair crews discovered that the radio portion of the plant’s system was burned out by the power surge when the electricity came on.

“When the water started again all the rust and sediments were washed into the pipes,” Konishi said. “We told people to flush out their pipes and the water would clear up and return to normal.”

Repair crews are still working on exactly what happened, she said.

Konishi said the water was safe to drink all the time, but it wasn’t very attractive.