Olalla: Water Pressure Dropped and Nobody Knows Why

Why this happens in Olalla

A partially closed or failing valve: a main shutoff that was never fully reopened, or a gate valve whose gate has dropped. In Olalla that usually means 1970s and 80s polyethylene gone brittle near Burley, and the ground, peat in the Olalla Creek valley, decides how far the water travels before you see it.

The second thing we rule in or out is a pressure regulator or well pressure switch. On a regulated system or a well, the regulator or the switch can fail. It's common enough on small farms near Burley that we never skip it.

Don't overlook corroded galvanized pipe. Rust builds up inside old steel pipe until the bore is a fraction of its original size. On Olalla properties from 1970s-to-2000s farms and acreage homes it comes up more than you'd think.

Before you call

Olalla has almost no utility meters, so the locate starts at the well's pressure tank and the first job is proving the loss is in the buried line and not at the pump, check valve or tank.

What you can check yourself on waterfront on Colvos Passage: do the meter test with the house isolated. Look at the pipe at the point of entry: threaded gray steel means galvanized. If you get that far, we'll pick it up from there with electronic acoustic ground microphone and leak noise correlator.

What happens next

In Olalla the work that follows the diagnosis is underground water leak detection, and it runs in order: confirm and mark, listen, trace the line. Galvanized on Colvos Passage cabins in hardpan on Banner Road sets the pace on pasture parcels off Olalla Valley Road; the sequence doesn't change.

Our Olalla coverage for low water pressure runs Colvos Passage, Olalla Bay, the Olalla Bridge, Al's Grocery and everything between. We're based in Central Kitsap, about forty minutes down Highway 16, with electronic acoustic ground microphone and pumps on the truck.