The relentless cold snap in February has played havoc with Humboldt's water services. Director of Public Works, Peter Bergquist, says not only has the frost resulted in the recent rash of water main breaks, but it has created problems for private water services.

Bergquist explains, "That cold February really had an effect on the frost in the ground and we're seeing private water services freezing up as well as some water main breaks now because of the shifting or moving."

He notes that this year's problems are more severe than last year due to the prolonged extreme cold, "It's worse for breaks from this time last year and last year we didn't have the freezing of the water services nearly as much. Last year was a lot milder than this year."

Moving forward, Bergquist outlines, the plan has three primary components, "The three primary things we're going to be worrying about is the thawing of the water services, or keeping them thawed, keeping water main breaks under control and still trying to provide as much service as we can toward getting water back on, and with the warm weather coming up, keeping the catch basins thawed.

Residents will be notified about service disruptions or drinking water advisories as work progresses through the final days of a long winter.