The city of Madison imposed watering restrictions on Sunday after a large crack was found in a main line into the city’s water plant.  Public Works Director Fred Snoderly said that the issue was discovered during a check by one of the on-call water plant operators doing a check of the plant on Saturday night.  Snoderly said they believe the problem probably started around 7:00-7:30 Saturday night, and was discovered by the city worker around 10:00.  He said water was found outside of the plant coming out of the ground.  Snoderly said a large hole had to be dug by the plant in order to get to the 12-inch steel line on the south side of the water plant that had the five-foot crack in it.  He said the water plant supervisor estimated around 200-thousand gallons of water were lost, plus time was lost in getting water into the plant to be treated as well to keep pumping to the city’s towers. 
Snoderly said that after working all night, the large crack was fixed by around 9:30 Sunday morning, but he said the watering restrictions remained in place because of the time needed for the water towers to recover. 
        The watering restrictions were lifted around 7:00 Monday morning.  Snoderly said the city appreciates everyone's cooperation during this situation.