Water from an unknown source cut its way under one of the clarifiers at the city’s wastewater treatment plant on Rifle Range Road and forced its way up, lifting the clarifier off its pilings and out of the ground, and bursting several pipes under the concrete basin, Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said Monday.

The clarifier is one of two at the treatment plant and is part of the wastewater treatment process. Each clarifier is 100 feet in diameter and 20 feet deep. The damaged unit has been shut down, and the plant is operating with one clarifier.

Van Norman told the Board of Mayor and Aldermen at a Monday work session the incident occurred Feb. 12 during repairs on the equipment.

“We’re not sure where the water came from,” he said, adding city sewer department crews had to breach a levee around the clarifier to relieve pressure on it. He said wastewater coming from one of the ruptured pipes is being pumped back through the plant.

Van Norman said he expects to meet Wednesday with engineers and experts from CDM Smith, a Jackson-based engineering firm that specializes in water and wastewater issues to discuss the problem.

“Hopefully they’ll recommend some ways we can repair it without having to tear it down and rebuild,” he said, adding rebuilding the clarifier was the worse case scenario for the city.