Aladdin hit by water outage

Residents of Aladdin have been without water since before the weekend. Because the State of Wyoming owns the affected water tank, it’s unclear at this time how the issue might be solved.

The problem began with a single affected home on Wednesday, but had become a district-wide disaster by Thursday morning.

“We discovered one of the residents here was out of water and then gradually everyone lost water,” says Wendy Tope, Vice President of the district.

On Thursday morning, an electrician came out to inspect the well.

“They said that the pump is fried. They don’t think it was hit by lightning, but it’s non-functional, so the entire community is without water,” Wendy continues.

Due to the fact that the district does not own the well, “We can’t do a thing,” says Trent Tope, President of the Aladdin Water District.

The houses within the area that make use of the well are members of the district, but the well itself has never belonged to the district. The state installed and owns it, says Trent, and the district buys the water for distribution to its members.

“This well was drilled down into the Madison – 2000 feet down – and it was supposed to provide water for Beulah all the way to the state line, up and over the Bearlodge. This was supposed to supply water for hundreds of people,” Trent explains.

“But then, everybody in the area decided they wanted nothing to do with it.”

Aside from the small number of families now within the district, he continues, everyone else to whom the well could have provided water chose to exempt themselves.

“So now there’s only a few people who use this massive well and it’s over 30 years old.”

As well as the homes that belong to the district, the issue is affecting two Aladdin businesses and visitors staying in the motel.

“We’re in contact with a well repair person and we’ve been told that it could possibly cost $100,000 to $150,000,” Wendy says.

“The district doesn’t have that kind of money, so now we’re just trying to figure out what to do next.”

The fact that the Aladdin Water District doesn’t have authority over the well means that it is less likely to be on the hook to pay for repairs. That could be a good thing – but, says Trent, on the other hand, government moves slowly when making decisions.

“Of course, Aladdin Water District with only a few people in it could never pay for it in maintenance, and that’s why they haven’t bought it from the state. The state would like to sell it, but the state wants a number that nine houses cannot even imagine about paying,” he says.

The district awaits word from the Wyoming Water Development Commission on what can be done to fix the tank. In the meantime, the district is looking into options to provide temporary water, such as bringing in tanks to ensure that residents can at least flush their toilets and the possibility of filling the 3000-gallon storage available.