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Minimizing utility risks
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| The intersection of Kenneth Road and Grandview Ave. in Kenneth Village has been close to repair road damage caused by a broken water main last year. (Roger Wilson/News-Press) |
New maintenance programs have reduced problems, but risk is always a factor, officials say.
By Melanie Hicken
CITY HALL — On the bulletin board across from his desk, Patrick Hayes keeps a picture of the 2006 Linda Vista main break as a constant reminder of the damage that can be caused by failed pipes.
The after-effects of major main breaks — including flooding and street damage — often require extensive repairs with high price tags for the city. They can also cause major annoyances for residents.
“It’s not just the cost of the repair. It’s the social cost,” said Hayes, principal engineer with Glendale Water & Power. “In this case, the disruption of a major commuter route.”
While pipe leaks and main breaks are not always avoidable, as the utility’s principal engineer, it’s Hayes’ job to make sure they are not a common occurrence.
With Los Angeles officials perplexed by a recent rash of high-profile water main breaks — including one that caused a sinkhole so big it almost swallowed a fire engine — Glendale Water & Power officials say they are confident in their own pipe infrastructure. Since 1996, the city has spent more than $17 million on pipe replacement and maintenance programs.
The programs appear to be paying off. Last year, the city experienced 12 main breaks and leaks, far below the city’s goal of fewer than 38 incidents.
“I’d love to see that number be zero, but it’s a matter of risk,” Hayes said. “You can’t completely eliminate the risk.”
THE L.A. PROBLEM
Hayes was quick to point out that in a water system as large as Los Angeles’, a high number of leaks and breaks are unavoidable.
While Glendale Water & Power manages about 400 miles of drinking-water pipes, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power oversees 7,200 miles of pipe.
“I don’t envy the management of all that,” Hayes said.
At a recent Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commission meeting, Jim McDaniel, senior assistant general manager of the water system, said that on average the utility sees about four leaks or main breaks per day, or an average of 1,400 leaks per year.
But McDaniel acknowledged that the city has seen an increased number of “blowouts,” major main breaks that often cause significant damage to the street and flooding of houses and businesses nearby.
“In the last three months we have seen an uptick in the number of blowouts,” he said. “We are trying to figure out what may be causing that.”
Some engineers have pointed to the recent breaks in Los Angeles as indicative of a nationwide problem as many cities struggle to keep up with aging drinking-water pipes.
“Gradually our infrastructure has been aging because we have not been maintaining,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, chairman of the USC civil and environmental engineering department.
Bardet pointed to an annual report from the American Society of Civil Engineers that gave the nation’s drinking-water pipes a near-failing grade.
According to the report, $255 billion would be needed to bring the pipes up to a passing grade.
In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency warned that current available funding would not be able to keep up with the aging process, and in 2003 the Congressional Budget Office came to a similar conclusion.
“We’re just waiting for things to break to fix them, when we should have a more organized plan of asset management,” Bardet said.
THE GLENDALE APPROACH
Utility officials acknowledged the nationwide problem, but said Glendale is ahead of the curve with replacement and maintenance programs targeting the city’s drinking-water infrastructure built before 1940 — which represents more than 40% of the city’s pipelines.
“In the early 1980s, the city had been pretty much built out at about that time,” Hayes said. “So it was natural to start looking inward, instead of building more pipe to look back on the system and find what needed to be approved.”
The city has replaced or refurbished about 80% of the city’s roughly 184 miles of pre-1940 pipeline since the late 1970s.
Age isn’t the only, or even most important, cause of failing pipes. Other factors include corrosive soil, tree roots or other sources of increased pressure and cracks caused by events such as earthquakes.
“It’s not necessarily the age,” Hayes said. “It’s what’s the condition of the pipe, how it’s been treated.”
The utility’s $28.5-million Smart Grid project, to include the installation of more than 100,000 advanced water and electric meters, will help the utility spot leaks early using a series of microphones. Leaks create a distinct sound, alerting engineers to the pending danger. Still, the city’s oldest pipes are the target of nine replacement projects estimated to cost $15.6 million in the next 10 years. Another three pipe cleaning and lining projects are estimated to cost $13.2 million within the same period.
Utility officials cited the unpopular rate increase approved by the City Council in 2007 as a key funding source for the pipe maintenance programs.
“I thought that was difficult but a good decision from them,” said Peter Kavounas, assistant general manager for water services.
The pipes being completely replaced are 4 inches in diameter, a size common in the early 20th century that is no longer big enough for fire flow requirements.
The pipe maintenance projects are for pipes with a 6-inch diameter or larger that are still structurally sound, Hayes said.
Rather than completely replace the pipes, workers can clean them out and line them with cement mortar, which prevents the build-up of deposits.
All new pipes are installed already lined so they last much longer than older pipes, officials said.
Lining projects add another 70 years to the pipe’s life, Hayes said.
The cost of keeping up with the aging system, while totaling tens of millions of dollars, is much less expensive in the long run when compared to repairing damage caused by major water main breaks, officials said.
“Of course, you can’t proactively maintain everything,” Kavounas said. “The real art in managing the public’s money is determining how much maintenance should we be doing in advance so we prevent and avoid those major issues?”
A major 10-day road reconstruction project along Grandview Avenue in north Glendale serves as a reminder. The damage to that area was caused by a massive water main break last year.
By the end of the next decade, Glendale Water & Power expects to have replaced or refurbished the oldest pipes, but Hayes said there is always more work to be done.
“It’s kind of like painting the Golden Gate Bridge,” he said.
MELANIE HICKEN covers City Hall. She may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at melanie.hicken@latimes.com.
The after-effects of major main breaks — including flooding and street damage — often require extensive repairs with high price tags for the city. They can also cause major annoyances for residents.
“It’s not just the cost of the repair. It’s the social cost,” said Hayes, principal engineer with Glendale Water & Power. “In this case, the disruption of a major commuter route.”
While pipe leaks and main breaks are not always avoidable, as the utility’s principal engineer, it’s Hayes’ job to make sure they are not a common occurrence.
With Los Angeles officials perplexed by a recent rash of high-profile water main breaks — including one that caused a sinkhole so big it almost swallowed a fire engine — Glendale Water & Power officials say they are confident in their own pipe infrastructure. Since 1996, the city has spent more than $17 million on pipe replacement and maintenance programs.
The programs appear to be paying off. Last year, the city experienced 12 main breaks and leaks, far below the city’s goal of fewer than 38 incidents.
“I’d love to see that number be zero, but it’s a matter of risk,” Hayes said. “You can’t completely eliminate the risk.”
THE L.A. PROBLEM
Hayes was quick to point out that in a water system as large as Los Angeles’, a high number of leaks and breaks are unavoidable.
While Glendale Water & Power manages about 400 miles of drinking-water pipes, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power oversees 7,200 miles of pipe.
“I don’t envy the management of all that,” Hayes said.
At a recent Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Commission meeting, Jim McDaniel, senior assistant general manager of the water system, said that on average the utility sees about four leaks or main breaks per day, or an average of 1,400 leaks per year.
But McDaniel acknowledged that the city has seen an increased number of “blowouts,” major main breaks that often cause significant damage to the street and flooding of houses and businesses nearby.
“In the last three months we have seen an uptick in the number of blowouts,” he said. “We are trying to figure out what may be causing that.”
Some engineers have pointed to the recent breaks in Los Angeles as indicative of a nationwide problem as many cities struggle to keep up with aging drinking-water pipes.
“Gradually our infrastructure has been aging because we have not been maintaining,” said Jean-Pierre Bardet, chairman of the USC civil and environmental engineering department.
Bardet pointed to an annual report from the American Society of Civil Engineers that gave the nation’s drinking-water pipes a near-failing grade.
According to the report, $255 billion would be needed to bring the pipes up to a passing grade.
In 2002, the Environmental Protection Agency warned that current available funding would not be able to keep up with the aging process, and in 2003 the Congressional Budget Office came to a similar conclusion.
“We’re just waiting for things to break to fix them, when we should have a more organized plan of asset management,” Bardet said.
THE GLENDALE APPROACH
Utility officials acknowledged the nationwide problem, but said Glendale is ahead of the curve with replacement and maintenance programs targeting the city’s drinking-water infrastructure built before 1940 — which represents more than 40% of the city’s pipelines.
“In the early 1980s, the city had been pretty much built out at about that time,” Hayes said. “So it was natural to start looking inward, instead of building more pipe to look back on the system and find what needed to be approved.”
The city has replaced or refurbished about 80% of the city’s roughly 184 miles of pre-1940 pipeline since the late 1970s.
Age isn’t the only, or even most important, cause of failing pipes. Other factors include corrosive soil, tree roots or other sources of increased pressure and cracks caused by events such as earthquakes.
“It’s not necessarily the age,” Hayes said. “It’s what’s the condition of the pipe, how it’s been treated.”
The utility’s $28.5-million Smart Grid project, to include the installation of more than 100,000 advanced water and electric meters, will help the utility spot leaks early using a series of microphones. Leaks create a distinct sound, alerting engineers to the pending danger. Still, the city’s oldest pipes are the target of nine replacement projects estimated to cost $15.6 million in the next 10 years. Another three pipe cleaning and lining projects are estimated to cost $13.2 million within the same period.
Utility officials cited the unpopular rate increase approved by the City Council in 2007 as a key funding source for the pipe maintenance programs.
“I thought that was difficult but a good decision from them,” said Peter Kavounas, assistant general manager for water services.
The pipes being completely replaced are 4 inches in diameter, a size common in the early 20th century that is no longer big enough for fire flow requirements.
The pipe maintenance projects are for pipes with a 6-inch diameter or larger that are still structurally sound, Hayes said.
Rather than completely replace the pipes, workers can clean them out and line them with cement mortar, which prevents the build-up of deposits.
All new pipes are installed already lined so they last much longer than older pipes, officials said.
Lining projects add another 70 years to the pipe’s life, Hayes said.
The cost of keeping up with the aging system, while totaling tens of millions of dollars, is much less expensive in the long run when compared to repairing damage caused by major water main breaks, officials said.
“Of course, you can’t proactively maintain everything,” Kavounas said. “The real art in managing the public’s money is determining how much maintenance should we be doing in advance so we prevent and avoid those major issues?”
A major 10-day road reconstruction project along Grandview Avenue in north Glendale serves as a reminder. The damage to that area was caused by a massive water main break last year.
By the end of the next decade, Glendale Water & Power expects to have replaced or refurbished the oldest pipes, but Hayes said there is always more work to be done.
“It’s kind of like painting the Golden Gate Bridge,” he said.
MELANIE HICKEN covers City Hall. She may be reached at (818) 637-3235 or by e-mail at melanie.hicken@latimes.com.
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