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City water system is old, but is constantly improved
Friday, August 04, 2000 By Timothy McNulty, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
How old is the city's water system?
So old that an industry group gave the Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority an award a few months ago for still having 150-year-old iron pipe operating in its system.
So old that some segments of the city's 1,200 miles of lines aren't made from pipe at all, but handcrafted from red brick.
So old that until a few years ago, some Hill District residents still couldn't draw water on the top floors of their homes.
The massive disruption caused yesterday by the break of a 100-year-old Oakland water main was a nasty reminder of the doddering state of some of the city's infrastructure. But authority officials stressed the system is constantly being improved and remains in good condition.
"It's in pretty good shape, though it has to get better," the authority's board chairman, state Rep. Joseph Preston, D-East Liberty, said via cell phone from Dithridge Street. "Most people turn on the tap and get what they deserve -- good, clean water."
Deputy board chairman Gene Ricciardi, a city councilman from the South Side, said the authority does "a remarkable job keeping up the infrastructure" of the old system.
"It's just like a household," Ricciardi said of yesterday's break. "Every once in a while, your water line breaks or your roof leaks -- it's just one of those things."
Since the authority was formed 16 years ago during Mayor Richard S. Caliguiri's administration, it has spent nearly $330 million on system improvements. In fact, the need for improvements was the very reason the agency was created.
Before then, City Council and the mayor decided whether to raise water rates. They were reluctant to do so and the water system suffered from neglect. Creating the authority took rate-setting out of the elected officials' hands and launched a then-$200 million program of capital repairs.
Since 1984, rate increases have been controlled by the authority board and, until recently, were a common phenomenon. With the exception of 1996, water rates for the authority's 80,000 customers were raised every year from 1984 through 1999, by as much as 19 percent.
The residential customer who paid $1.44 per thousand gallons in 1985 pays $3.95 per thousand now. Preston said rate increases aren't likely this year or next, and he defended the authority's rates, saying they're less than those charged by private water suppliers in the suburbs.
Ricciardi argues the authority has sometimes done too many capital improvements to the old lines, since that work leads to the kind of rate increases he and other homeowners abhor.
"The workers do such a remarkable job with replacement and upkeep on a continual basis. But sometimes they're too aggressive. That's what leads us to raise rates," he said.
Last year the authority made $20 million in capital improvements and is doing $32 million in work this year, which includes $18 million in improvements to the Highland Park reservoir, according to the authority's construction manager, Terry Reinhart of Chester Engineers.
Much of the recent work has been at giant city development projects, including the stadium construction on the North Side and the South Side Works project at the former LTV Steel site. The authority also plans improvements at the former slag dump at Nine Mile Run near Swisshelm Park, the site of a new housing development.
No citywide studies have been done to gauge the exact age of the water and sewer system, Reinhart said.
The Murphy administration sold its water and sewer lines to the authority in 1995 for $96 million as a bookkeeping maneuver to save the city budget. While the authority is now quasi-independent from the city, the seven-member authority board is still appointed by the mayor, and the city still dips into the authority's till to help balance its books.
The authority is forwarding $7.1 million to the city this year to cover tax-exempt properties it owns and services the city provides. That payment includes $2.3 million the authority began earning last year when it increased water rates for tax-exempt institutions such as hospitals and universities.
Unlike the 1984 creation of the water and sewer authority, the 1995 sale of the system was not arranged to fund infrastructure improvements. But there was some effect on them. While the city owned the system, the Department of Public Works handled all its repairs and emergencies. Last year that responsibility was finally handed over to the authority.
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