UPDATE: Woodstock’s water well was back up and running as of Tuesday evening, and the town was no longer asking users to conserve water, Municipal Manager Eric Duffy said in a message to residents.
“We are hopeful that tonight we will regain any tank water loss we suffered over the last 24 hours,” Duffy said in the message, adding that officials would send another update if the situation changes.
Duffy thanked the town’s Public Works Crew, including AJ and Butch by name, “for all their work today to keep water flowing and things in a good position.”
WOODSTOCK — Water system users are being asked to conserve water after a pump on the system’s main well failed.
Workers were able to get the pump running again, and town officials have hired someone to make the repair permanent to the well, which is located on Route 12.
“This morning we found out it wasn’t pumping to the tank and we lost about five or six feet overnight,” Woodstock Municipal Manager Eric Duffy said Tuesday about the well’s challenges. “If we had lost another seven feet of water, we would have had to go to a boil water notice.”
The town has a backup well nearby, which has been running at full capacity to make up for the challenges to the main well, Duffy said. The town won’t know how much the repair will cost until after it’s finished.
“If we don’t have money in the water operating budget for it — which we should — we can also tap into capital reserve as well,” Duffy said, adding that the water operating budget is paid for by user fees.
The town is still asking the system’s roughly 800 users — which includes the majority of Woodstock Village residents and businesses — to continue to conserve water “to make sure we didn’t have any decrease in the water capacity,” Duffy said.
More repairs to the water system are in the works as part of a long-term plan officials put in place after residents voted to approve the purchase of the Woodstock Aqueduct Co., a privately owned company, in 2024. In the years since, town officials have sought numerous grants to pay for more improvements, including a $35 million bond voters approved during this year’s Town Meeting.
One of the projects the town is working on is building a new well “that should be fully installed by the end of next year” to replace the one that is currently experiencing issues, Duffy said. Another project scheduled for this fall will move a water pipe spanning the Elm Street bridge underneath the bridge.
