MANSFIELD — Scott Scivva pulled on his wetsuit, slipped on his helmet and slowly climbed down into the well on an unseasonably cold mid-May day.
Just another day for the 19-year-old Cleveland native Monday as Allied Technical Services began cleaning the City of Mansfield’s primary water service line and clear wells.
Scivva is part of a four-man dive team from the Cincinnati-based company that will spend the next several days clearing calcium carbonate from the water line and wells.
Chunks of the buildup broke loose in late December, plugging more than 90 percent of the water line, according to Scott Maynard, the 32-year-old director of diving operations for Allied.
Allied responded to the then-emergency situation and opened up enough of the line for it to operate successfully. City workers had to install a by-pass pump until the problem was corrected, leading to a four-day, citywide boil advisory.
Mansfield Public Works Director David Remy said the main line, which he said is 350 feet in length and 48 inches in diameter, has not been cleared of calcium carbonate buildups for 10 to 15 years.
City Council approved a $58,000 contract last week with Allied, which is the only company in Ohio that does this type of work, according to Remy.
“It was pretty bad,” Maynard said, adding the work being done now is standard maintenance.
“This is pretty routine work for us. We travel all over Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana. We do inspections, repairs, cleanings … whatever is needed,” Maynard said.
Josh Keeler, interim water treatment plant manager, said the city plans to have the work done on a more routine basis. The buildup, he said, is comparable to a homeowner losing water pressure with older galvanized steel pipes.
The Mansfield Water Treatment plan was built in 1950 and Keeler said he believes the lines are still the originals put in place.
It’s been a tumultuous start in Mansfield for Keeler, who joined the water treatment plant in September 2019, just a few months before the problem led to the boil advisory.
With 12 years of experience in the water treatment business, Keeler became interim plant manager on March 13, just before the COVID-19 pandemic led to a statewide economic shutdown.
Before Scivva descended into the well on Monday morning, braving an outside air temperature of 39 degrees, a co-worker disinfected his wetsuit. Keeler said the city will check the water for bacteria levels as the work is done, but that a boil advisory should not be necessary.
“(Allied) conforms with all industry (sanitizing) standards for the work they do,” Keeler said.
A few minutes after he entered the well, Scivva motioned for his co-worker to hand down the large “vacuum hose” he would use to begin sucking up any buildup on the well floors and/or walls.
“If the weather is nice, there is no better job,” Scivva said before he began work.
How does Maynard talk divers into going into pipes and wells, especially when the weather is cold?
“Pay them,” he said with a smile. “It’s just like anything else.”
