Residents of Manitou Springs were asked to limit water use after an emergency repair caused a full shutdown of the system Monday afternoon. 

As of 8 p.m. Monday, city officials say the repair has been completed and water is back on for residents. 

At 3:35 p.m. Monday the city sent out the emergency notice of the water outage. According to the release, the city was working to replace aging infrastructure around a fire hydrant on Puma Path “when the system failed immediately causing flooding into the storm water drainage system. As a result of the failure, Public Works crews have shut off water valves from the main water tank to gain access to the origin of the leak.”

Calling aging infrastructure around the city “challenging,” Manitou Springs public information officer Mitchell Carter said that the decades-old hydrant was incorrectly connected directly to the main water line without a gate or valve, causing the entire city’s water tank supply to be shut down to stop the rupture. 

With the city’s main water source shut down, residents were urged to conserve as much water as possible, only using it for the most necessary of activities. 

Manitou Springs asked residents not to wash cars or sidewalks and to turn off landscaping water systems. Laundry, dishwashing and showering were likewise limited. 

The Pool and Fitness Center, 202 Manitou Ave., was closed to the public Monday.

Carter said that water in distribution lines continued to provide water for necessities until the repair could be made. In a release, the city said that the hydrant has been replaced with a valve and the system was in the process of being re-pressurized. 

The city said that residents could expect low pressure and discolored water in the first few minutes of turning on their faucets. The release advised turning on the lowest point tap, often a bathtub, for a few minutes on cold until the water clears. 

“We sincerely appreciate the community for working together to conserve water during this repair,” said Manitou Springs city administrator Denise Howell. “And thank you to our dedicated staff for working tirelessly to restore service as quickly as possible.”

For updates on this outage, and other water information, please visit: ManitouSpringsGov.com/WaterOutage.

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