PALMER — A streak of abnormally cold weather this month has frozen utility lines across Mat-Su, leaving many homeowners without water or septic and sewer systems.
For some of those issues, the problem is unlikely to improve anytime soon, experts said Tuesday.
“This year is unlike any year we’ve seen,” said Brenden Strom, owner of Wasilla-based A2 Septic. “We’re fielding three to 10 emergencies every single day.”
Strom said his company and others across the Mat-Su have responded to hundreds of calls from residents whose lines have frozen since January, with a sharp uptick in service calls over the last several weeks during the ongoing cold snap. In some neighborhoods, the issue is compounded by cold-related problems at the community well.
Deep-freeze temperatures paired with low snow cover have pushed extreme cold more than 10 feet below ground — deeper than is typical for the region — affecting lines not designed to handle that level of cold, he said.
The ongoing 43-day cold snap is the third-longest stretch of below-normal temperatures in Southcentral Alaska since the National Weather Service began tracking data in the region, forecasters said in a Facebook post this week. It is the first such stretch this time of year.
One result: frozen pipes and homes without running water.
“Frost this year is traveling 10 feet deep,” Strom said. “This is an anomaly — it is insane.”
New construction, where the ground has not fully settled, and part-time rentals or vacation homes without consistent daily water use have been especially hard hit, he said. Septic systems rely on flowing water to keep pipes open, so one freeze-up can lead to another.
Emergency line and septic system thaw-outs can cost anywhere from $350 to more than $1,000, depending on the issue, he said.
Frozen water lines may soon be left behind during break up, Strom said, but sewer and septic problems are expected to worsen as frozen ground thaws and the water table rises. Because of the deep cold, septic system bacteria that typically break down solids have not been functioning properly, and residents may experience sudden backups.
When in doubt, residents should schedule a pump-out, he said.
Palmer and Wasilla residents on municipal water and sewer systems in areas where lines are not buried deep enough or where water is not running consistently have also had abnormal frozen pipe problems this month, city officials said Tuesday.
In Palmer, a handful of residents in the Hidden Ranch subdivision have been without water for up to two weeks as city officials work out the freeze-up.
Frozen water lines between the street and a home can trigger freezes between street and the city’s main line, or vice versa, complicating the issue and making it unclear where the problem originated or who is responsible, city officials said.
That’s the situation Palmer resident Amy Fuqua has faced over the past week after her water stopped flowing last Wednesday. Nearby neighbors have reported similar problems, she said.
“When you buy a house, you expect, barring something unusual, that you can turn on your faucet and have water,” she said. “I know one-off situations happen, but it’s very concerning that the whole street is having an issue.”
Fuqua said the city initially told her the freeze-up was on her property, but a private company she hired to thaw the lines said they were clear. She has also spent hundreds of dollars on water deliveries and equipment and heats water on her stove to take a makeshift shower.
Palmer officials said 15 customers had frozen lines as of Tuesday morning, with 20 total cases this season. About half of the issues originated on private property, they said.
Crews planned to work in the Hidden Ranch subdivision Tuesday to resolve the problem.
In Wasilla, Public Works Director Erich Schaal said the city has responded to 20 frozen water lines between the municipal system and private property, along with dozens of sewer-related issues.
Unlike Palmer’s gravity-based system, which has not had problems in the cold, Wasilla’s sewer network relies on pumps. Freezing temperatures have disrupted the system, causing about 50 frozen pipe incidents among the city’s roughly 1,000 sewer users, and officials expect conditions to worsen before improving.
“It’s going to get worse because now that the frost has reached that depth, it will take a long time to thaw,” he said. “I think we’ll have problems through the beginning of May.”
Homes in Fairbanks, where temperatures are often much colder, don't have this problem because the water system is heated. That's not the case in this area, he said.
Experts and city officials said residents should keep a small, steady stream of water — about the width of a pencil lead — flowing from a single faucet until temperatures rise. That flow helps keep water moving through both household plumbing and sewer or septic systems.
“You need to keep your water and your sewer thawed by running enough water to keep it flushed,” Schaal said.
This story was originally published by the Mat-Su Sentinel and is republished here with permission.
