Water towers. What say you? (Decatur, Sheffield: power lines, house, buying)

[MelanieP]

Hi all,

After a productive trip to the area, my husband and I have made a decision on which area we'd like to live. But it's led us to a perplexing situation.

It's a rural area and the land we are considering is in front of a very tall water tower. I personally think they have a sort of charm as town landmarks, but I'm worried about a couple of things namely, can they - uh - fall over? Tornadoes are pretty common in N AL, after all.

Of course the builder assures us it's safe but I really know nothing about water towers and can't find much information on the subject, so we are just sort of blindly accepting his opinion with a nod and an "Uh-huh, OK..."

Would the Chamber of Commerce or even the water dept. likely have more information such as the age of the water tower, maintenance issues, etc? I will call, but wanted to see if anyone had any feedback first before I talk to someone and get branded as a city idiot before I've even packed my bags.

Thanks!

[gsp4ever]

Originally Posted by MelanieP

It's a rural area and the land we are considering is in front of a very tall water tower. I personally think they have a sort of charm as town landmarks, but I'm worried about a couple of things namely, can they - uh - fall over? Tornadoes are pretty common in N AL, after all.

I would call the Water Dept. if it's a tower that belongs to them (like Harvest-Monrovia--I don't know who owns water towers) you didn't specify where the tower is but it seems to me like there are few around IIRC. It's worth a try.

Actually, Tornados are not *that* common in North Alabama. We do have them and we do have strong thunderstorms but I've been here eight years and can't recall anything that took a water tower down. However, a tornado could do it, but then again, a tornado could take down just about anything--especially a strong tornado.

[harry chickpea]

Water towers (aka standpipes) can fail.

Joseph Joyner Collection (http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/joyner_joseph/joyner_joseph.htm - broken link)

History of the Sheffield Standpipe

This is a story that includes reference to one being destroyed in a tornado:
Bryan S. Bush Books :: Articles by Bryan S. Bush - Article: The Great Cyclone of 1890: Tragedy Struck Louisville (http://www.bryansbush.com/hub.php?page=articles&layer=a0803 - broken link)

You can also expect the standpipe to be struck by lightning if it a metal structure sitting fairly high above ground.

Over the air radio and television reception could be interesting because of the mass of metal.

My guess is that something of the mass of a standpipe, especially if full of water, would not fall over like a tree, but quickly start to crumple once it was off-axis and the structural supports compromised. I'd expect it to fall within an area about 1/2 the height. Debris could bounce out of that zone, and thin steel panels that came loose could be carried by the wind.

All in all, I would personally pass on the property. There is plenty of other land on the planet.

[MelanieP]

Yikes! Thanks for the info. Er, I think.

[Southlander]

Lightening and interference with cell phone and radio reception might be a problem.

Take a look at the tower. Is it well maintained? Is there a lot of rust? Ask the water department that owns it how old it is, and if it's in use. If it is well maintained, no problem.

There is a water tower here in Decatur at the site of an old cotton warehouse. The company is long out of business, and nobody can agree who owns it. I know, somebody owns that property, but nobody's taking responsibility. It's long out of use and rusting to beat the band, and has been for years. Nobody will do anything unless it's profitable to salvage the metal, or it falls down.

Never heard of a water tower blown over by a tornado.

The only other time I heard of a water tower "falling" down was when the late "Dynamite Jim" Atkins was hired to blast an old stone water tower in Limestone County into rubble. Weeks of careful preparation...strategically placed dynamite...the news photographers assembled, and Jim pushed the plunger. A little pop! A bit of smoke....and the old water tower still stood. It took about triple the amount of dynamite to do the job!

They sure don't build 'em like that anymore!

[milledj]

Personally, I would rather live near a water tower than high voltage wires. But if you have another option, I would prefer NO towers.

[bluemorpho]

We ran into the same issue in a subdivision we looked at here. Liked the house, liked the plot, but the primary view from almost every window was this enormous water tower. I didn't even think of the tornadoes aspect; I just had a knee-jerk reaction that I didn't want my "scenery" to consist mainly of a hulking metal behemoth for the next three decades.

[caution]

I would think that if a tornado (F5?) was strong enough to knock down a water tower the fact it was failing would be the least of your concerns. However, I would look at it like this, the point of buying a large chunk of land to live on is to get away from it all, IMHO. For me, this would rule out power lines and water towers. It would also require quite a bit of research to determine what land borders yours and how it might be used minimizing the chances of something suprising you 10-15 years later.

I wanted to buy a big chunk of land when moving here, but we got a house in a suburb instead. I'll use the next 5-8 years to pick out a spot to buy land and build. At least that's my plan. The way things are growing here, that might send me up into TN.