04/03/2008: "Courthouse Leak Fixed"

The plumbing leak problem at the courthouse has been solved, and water is once again flowing from the water fountains at the San Juan County Courthouse and employees and visitors are once again enjoying the pleasures of indoor plumbing.

“We still have a lot of clean-up and finish work to do,” said Building and Grounds Manager Bud Sears, “but we have water in the building.”

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County Buildings and Grounds and maintenance employees and a Sheriff’s work crew did preparatory work to re-route the supply pipe, and contractor Northwest Plumbing of Bellingham ran the pipe and finished the final connections at approximately 10 a.m. this morning. An inspector from the Town of Friday Harbor gave a conditional approval to the work at approximately 10:30 and water service was restored moments later.

The courthouse was without water for seven working days after employees discovered water seeping into a document storage area in the building’s basement on March 24. The leak was traced to the main water supply pipe, which ran under a six inch thick, steel reinforced slab under the Sheriff’s Department dispatch center.

Sears said “Northwest Plumbing deserves a lot of credit and many kudos to our maintenance staff – they worked a lot of hours and did all the digging and cutting in the ceiling [where the new pipe was routed] and got this done a lot faster than expected.” The work was completed two days ahead of the projected schedule of completion.