A water pump issue at the Carbon County prison is still occurring, officials said this week.

On Wednesday, Rodney Reeser, maintenance director at the prison, updated the prison board on the water pump system that has been plaguing the facility with problems.

The system in question was installed less than two years ago.

Reeser said that since the last meeting, he has had several additional issues with a few of the water pumps.

On April 25, pump one went into alarm, and Reeser was able to get it working.

On May 11, a propeller section in pump two was replaced, but started to make noise again the following day.

He pointed out that pump three was replaced twice, while parts on both pumps one and two were replaced multiple times since the first installation.

He is also waiting on the company to send quotes for extra parts for the pumps to have on hand.

Controller Mark Sverchek asked if the company was providing parts for the right pumps or why they are continuing to fail.

Commissioners’ Chairman Wayne Nothstein said it appears that it is a bearing issue in the motor, and he thinks it is time to call the company that designed the system and tell them the new pump system “isn’t cutting it.”

The water pump system has been in question for quite some time.

Last month, Reeser told the prison board of several incidents where pumps went down.

The county did a $256,000 overhaul of the prison’s water system control building equipment in 2020 after failing equipment caused several water problems at the prison, including a water tank getting drained.

The system that had been replaced was the original to the building, which opened for operation in December 1994.

In other prison matters, the prison board spoke about the question of having inmates work in the animal shelter.

It was brought up that one inmate applied, but got a misconduct charge in the prison before it was determined if he was allowed to work at the shelter.

Nothstein said years ago, the county did have inmates work at the shelter, but several issues ended that part of the work-release program.

District Attorney Michael Greek, president of the prison board, asked why the county can’t treat them as work-release inmates if they meet the work-release criteria and the judge allows it.

Warden James Youngkin said that there were several years where inmates worked at the shelter without incident, and previous directors had a system set with the prison to notify staff when inmates were returning.

No formal action was taken on the matter.