Elma, IA- The water is back on for several North Iowa families and businesses after routine maintenance leads to a three day shut down.
Now leaders in the city of Elma are hoping the state will help them improve their aging water pipes.
The sound of running tap water is a very welcome one in Irma Jensen's home and more than 200 others in Elma.
In the last 24 hours she was reminded of life before indoor plumbing.
"I'm old enough I've gone to the well to get a pale of water and I used to go to country school and we had to go up the hill like Jack and Jill and get water for the school," she said.
She's able to smile now, but Elma City Superintendent Dennis O'brien says the state of his town's water supply is no laughing matter. He found out the hard way while flushing out hydrants earlier in the week.
"So I tried everything I could to get it shut down and it just all of a sudden I heard a snap, it broke inside the hydrant at the bottom part of the hydrant it just kept running and running," O’Brien said.
Right now Obrien says they have water mains that are four inches wide, but DNR code requires pipes twice that size. He's expecting Elma's water problems to get worse before they get better.
"We got some older hydrants, we got some old valves in here and the more you mess with them the more you have problems with them, I don't like to see it but the town's gettin' old," he said.
The city tried securing aid two months ago from the state's revolving fund to replace Elma's aging water system. But the city's clerk says the state doesn't think their problems are big enough, yet.
"The only funding that we would be receiving would be for the water meter project which is a very small fraction of the project in total," said City Clerk Gayla Albrecht.
For now their water problems are fixed. Which means Irma can get back to washing her dishes.
"I wouldn't care of it if it went on for a week or two, but for the time being we could manage," she said.
O'brien says the city will continue to try to secure state funding to get all the of the town's water mains up to code.
He says replacing valves and hydrants this week is eating up a large chunk of the city's water budget for this year.
