Water main breaks a constant plague
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It's that time of year again -- the season of water main breaks -- and each January the count goes up.
The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority, logging four to five each day, ends this month with about 85, compared to 74 last January and fewer than that the January before.
The most sobering reality beyond water or ice on streets, beyond the noise and inconvenience of repairs, is that roughly 240,000 breaks in the United States each year waste 1.7 trillion gallons of water, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The survey estimates the cost down the drain is $2.6 billion.
And the money that would prevent much of this loss isn't available for the crisis level game of catch-up.
In the early 2000s, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency determined that, within 20 years, the gap between what was being invested and what should be invested in water infrastructure would reach half a trillion dollars.
"In the U.S., people kind of believe cheap water is their right," said Wayne Klotz, a national expert on water systems and past president of the American Society of Civil Engineers. "There are very few cites that charge customers what it costs them to deliver water" because people demand low water rates. "That starves the system of maintenance, and all you have done is start the clock ticking on the next major break."
Breaks are most frequent after spates of sub-freezing weather, but they happen year round and in warm climates. "I have done more interviews with people [from various cities] who say, 'We have all these water main breaks. What's goin' on?' " said Mr. Klotz.
His answer: Deferred maintenance.
Most jurisdictions are spending just 1 to 1.5 percent on infrastructure -- all infrastructure, which is down from 5 to 6 percent spent in the 1960s and '70s, he said.
"One percent isn't even enough to do maintenance," he said. "Infrastructure was once a primary function of government. And of all the things a city provides, water is the only one that's necessary for life."
In 2009, the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority embarked on what board member and Councilman Patrick Dowd said was an "unprecedented reinvestment" in infrastructure upgrades.
The board imposed a 5 percent distribution service charge to everyone's water bill two years ago to create a fund "explicitly for fixing infrastructure, and the first use was this month," he said.
First Published January 31, 2011 12:00 am
