- April 19, 2024
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A garden hose and a T-shirt were found on top of the Palm Coast water tower. The following is compiled from reports from the city of Palm Coast and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office:
Palm Coast’s elevated water storage tank located on Interstate 95 was vandalized sometime between Monday, May 16, and early morning on Tuesday, May 17.
The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating this trespass. In the meantime, the city has completely isolated the tank from the main water system utilizing a series of valves. None of the approximate 500,000 gallons in the tank is presently going through the city’s delivery system.
Deputies said that around 9 a.m. city workers advised they were performing daily water quality checks at the tower when they found the main entry door had been damaged and forced open. A green garden hose was hanging about 50 feet above the ground. Nothing was reported stolen in the incident.
Flagler County Fireflight responded to take aerial photographs of the tower and observed a shirt on top of the tower, wrapped around a lightning cable. A lid to an air vent at the top of the tower had been removed, according to deputies.
Deputies said a beer can was found inside the fenced area around the water tower. The shirt was recovered after it blew off the top of the tank.
How the perpetrator got into the tower compound, which is surrounded by fence topped by barbed wire, has not been determined.
“We take these matters extremely seriously and are being very proactive to protect the public,” says Richard Adams, public works/utility director for the city. “We have no reason to believe there is any contamination, but we are not taking any chances.”
The city has collected water samples for testing and has notified the State Warning Point and the Department of Environmental Protection.
The storage tank is one of six tanks in Palm Coast’s water system. Isolating this water will not affect the water supply in any way. For more information, call 931-8031.
