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Holiday Breakdown Leaves Largest Army Base in South Korea Without Running Water

Posted By Common Defense On In National Security, News | No Comments

Soldiers at the Army’s primary base in South Korea were left without running water after a mechanical failure dried up taps across Camp Humphreys.

Army officials said Friday that the disruption would continue through the holiday weekend.

Camp Humphreys sits about 40 miles south of Seoul. Officials said repairs would be delayed because of Chuseok, a three day Korean harvest festival extending through Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

That holiday schedule means U.S. troops, families and contractors at the installation could remain without running water until Monday.

Army officials have not said how many troops are directly affected by the shortage.

A basewide notification alerting the Camp Humphreys community to the shortage went out Friday, Sept. 25, at about 8 p.m. Updates posted on a Camp Humphreys Facebook page said the problem affected drinking water as well as water used for sanitation.

The loss of running water forced multiple services across the installation to close.

A post on the base’s Facebook page listed recreational facilities, stores and food service locations among the operations suspended during the disruption.

“All [recreational] facilities, AAFES food services, AAFES Main Exchange, Zoeckler Mini Mall, Troop Mini Mall, Sentry Mini Mall, and 3rd MI Express are suspended,” the post said. “The 24-hour Family Mini Mall remains operational.”

Dining facilities also remained open, according to officials. Other parts of daily life on the sprawling installation faced more severe limitations because most plumbing was out of service.

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Officials made drinking water available through nine portable tanks described as “water buffalo” tanks stationed around the base.

People using those tanks were told they would need to bring their own containers and fill them at the distribution locations.

Portable toilets were placed at several locations to handle sanitary needs while the plumbing remained unavailable.

Officials said the toilets could be found at the commissary, lodgings on the installation and the 24 hour Family Mini Mall.

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Republic of Korea and U.S. Soldiers at the demilitarized zone in South Korea facing North Korea on Nov. 11, 2012. DoW photo by D. Myles Cullen

Camp Humphreys normally receives approximately 70% of its water from the nearby city of Pyeongtaek, according to previous reporting by Stars and Stripes. The remaining 30% comes from wells located on the installation.

Officials attributed the broad disruption to a mechanical failure, but further details were not immediately provided.

The Army did not immediately respond to questions from Task & Purpose about the direct cause of the water shortage.

The shortage hit an installation with an on base population of about 45,000 service members, civilians, contractors and family members.

Many soldiers stationed at Camp Humphreys serve on unaccompanied tours without their families, although that does not apply to every soldier there.

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Camp Humphreys is the largest U.S. military installation overseas and is home to the 2nd Infantry Division.

Its size and population magnify the impact when basic infrastructure such as running water suddenly stops working across the base.

The disruption also arrived at the start of a major holiday weekend, limiting how quickly the mechanical problem could be addressed.

Officials said the delayed repairs could leave the installation without normal water service through the entire weekend.

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The base’s response centered on keeping drinking water accessible, maintaining dining facilities and positioning portable toilets at essential locations.

At the same time, numerous recreational, retail and food service operations remained suspended because of the outage.

For troops, families, civilians and contractors, the practical instructions were blunt: find one of the nine portable water tanks, bring a container and prepare for limited plumbing. Normal running water was not expected to return before Monday under the timeline provided by officials.