The engineering firm Carbon County contracts has reported that the water emergency at the prison that occurred last month was not the fault of the contractor that is working to widen Emergency Lane, which sits above the facility.

On Thursday, Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein read a letter from R. Michael Tirpak II, of Carbon Engineering, regarding the events that led up to the pipes that supply water to the prison freezing. He also noted that the cost for the emergency totaled $20,476.10.

The pipes were exposed as a result of the road widening project, which is the first phase of the Emergency Operations and Training Center project. Bruce George Paving and Excavating of Kunkletown is the contractor completing the work.

Tirpak said that when the lines were dug up, they were covered by straw, wood chips and tarps for insulation.

When the pipes froze, a drop in water pressure was noticed by prison maintenance staff, but did not seem significant enough that there was a bigger problem, Tirpak said.

Nothstein said that the prison toilet system needs a certain amount of water pressure to operate properly, and once the pressure drops, it is like turning on all the valves because the water continues to flow. This then contributed to draining the water tank.

The system had to be systematically shut down to help build pressure back up and then turned back on in phases. Once that was completed, the lines inspected and the water pressure built back up, the problem began to resolve.

Tankers were brought in to refill the tank, and inmates were supplied with bottled water for drinking.

“It was just a very unfortunate set of circumstances,” Nothstein said.

Commissioner Thomas J. Gerhard, who last week was questioned by James Dulcey, owner of Vogel Farm Spring Water in Weatherly, as to why he allowed the county to call an out-of-county water hauler instead of calling his company, also addressed the matter.

He said that Nothstein was at the site once the problem occurred and that Vogel Farm was not on the county or PEMA’s resource lists for water suppliers. It wasn’t until the county obtained the state Department of Environmental Protection’s resource list that the company was found to be certified in supplying potable water.

“Just because there may be differences between Mr. Dulcey and myself, this was about public safety,” he said. “It was about our employees and the inmates. I didn’t have a problem about getting water from Vogel Farm.”

The commissioners also said that moving forward, the county will be looking at the water system at the prison, which was constructed in 1992, as well as inspecting the water tank to ensure a problem like this doesn’t happen again.