The Mayfair residents who haven’t had hot water since Saturday say they are grateful for the long hours utility workers have put into finding where water is leaking into gas lines under streets in their east Denver neighborhood.
But they’re frustrated the problem still isn’t solved.
“It’s awful. I have to go to my mother-in-law’s for a shower,” said Angela Lopez, who runs an after-school child care at her home. “I have three kids of my own, and without having my stove to boil water, I have to microwave water. My kids are taking cold baths.”
Xcel workers have been looking for the trouble spot that has left hundreds without gas for cooking and heating water in an area bounded by Fairfax and Holly streets, East 12th Avenue and East Severn Place, and a stretch of Holly between Severn and East Sixth Avenue.
Dozens of Xcel trucks were parked in front of Tom Harshbarger’s home, near East 11th Avenue and Grape Street on Tuesday, and there were at least three massive pits in the middle of the street.
Residents say Xcel workers have been in the neighborhood from dawn until midnight trying to figure out where the water is getting into the gas lines.
“Xcel has been working their butts off,” said Harshbarger. “But I’ll be glad to see the trucks gone. I’ve never seen anything like this.”
Many affected residents have been showering at gyms or recreation centers, or washing up at friends’ homes. People with gas stoves are eating out or getting creative.
“We’re thinking of pulling out our little camping propane stove just to get by,” Lopez said. “We went out to eat the first night. The second night, we grilled. But now we’re too scared to grill because of the gas fumes. You can smell them everywhere, … and it’s kind of scary not knowing if it’s going to blow up.”
The businesses and restaurants in the area are unaffected by the outage.
Xcel ran a temporary gas line to Palmer Elementary School so that hot lunches can still be served to students, principal Liz Trujillo said.
Despite digging dozens of pits to pump water from the gas lines, the utility still hasn’t located the source of the leak. Workers also will replace nearly 200 residential gas meters
once the gas lines have been cleared and resealed.
“There are a lot of crews out there. It’s very frustrating,” Xcel spokesman Mark Stutz said. “It’s basically trying to find a hole that may only be a couple of inches wide.”
There are a few areas in Mayfair that have been successfully pumped and remain relatively dry, Stutz said. Xcel hopes to restore service to these isolated areas soon. Some residents were told crews would visit them after 5 p.m. to light pilot lights, but by 6 p.m. Tuesday none had arrived.
In the meantime, crews are still looking for the source of the leak — it may be an old water or sewer pipe, or water coming from some forgotten source, Stutz said.
“It’s something that’s pretty unusual in our experience,” Stutz said. “It’s not like we haven’t had water in our pipes before — that happens quite a bit. But to have one in this large an area and have this kind of difficulty finding it is (not normal).”
Megan Mitchell: 303-954-1223, mmitchell@denverpost.com or
