US water pipelines are breaking

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US water pipelines are breaking

By COLLEEN LONG, Associated Press Writer Tue Apr 8, 3:31 PM ET

NEW YORK - Two hours north of New York City, a mile-long stream and a

marsh the size of a football field have mysteriously formed along a

country road. They are such a marvel that people come from miles

around to drink the crystal-clear water, believing it is bubbling up

from a hidden natural spring.

The truth is far less romantic: The water is coming from a cracked

70-year-old tunnel hundreds of feet below ground, scientists say.

The tunnel is leaking up to 36 million gallons a day as it carries

drinking water from a reservoir to the big city. It is a powerful

warning sign of a larger problem around the country: The

infrastructure that delivers water to the nation's cities is badly

aging and in need of repairs.

The Environmental Protection Agency says utilities will need to invest

more than $277 billion over the next two decades on repairs and

improvements to drinking water systems. Water industry engineers put

the figure drastically higher, at about $480 billion.

Water utilities, largely managed by city governments, have never faced

improvements of this magnitude before. And customers will have to bear

the majority of the cost through rate increases, according to the

American Water Works Association, an industry group.

Engineers say this is a crucial era for the nation's water systems,

especially in older cities like New York, where some pipes and tunnels

were built in the 1800s and are now nearing the end of their life

expectancies.

" Our generation hasn't experienced anything like this. We weren't

around when the infrastructure was being built, " said Greg Kail,

spokesman for the water industry group. " We didn't pay for the pipes

to be put in the ground, but we sure benefited from the improvements

to public health that came from it. "

He said the situation has not reached crisis stage, but without a

serious investment, " it can become a crisis. Each year the problem is

put on the back burner, the price tag is going to go up. "

Catastrophic problems can arise when infrastructure fails. An

84-year-old steam pipe erupted beneath a New York street last year,

creating a mammoth geyser that rained mud and debris down on the city.

In Chicago, an 80-year-old cast-iron water main broke earlier this

year, spilling thousands of gallons and opening up a 25-foot hole in

the street.

In Denver, up to 4 million gallons of water gushed from a ruptured

30-year-old pipeline in February, gouging a sinkhole across three

lanes of Interstate 25. The lanes were shut down for nearly two weeks.

Cleveland has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure

in the past 20 years but still must repair daily breaks. Last month, a

break in a 2 1/2-foot-diameter water main turned a downtown square

into a watery crater and knocked out other utilities.

The amount of wasted water from these breaches is staggering.

The 36 million gallons a day that leak from the 85-mile Delaware

Aqueduct in New York state amounts to more than 1 billion gallons a

month. That may be a drop in the bucket compared to the hundreds of

billions of water consumed in New York City every year, but the daily

leak in the tunnel would meet the daily demands of drought-ravaged

Raleigh, N.C.

Residents in Wawarsing, about 100 miles from New York City, blame

tunnel leaks for the constant flooding in their yards and basements.

Department of Environmental Protection engineers are trying to

determine whether the aqueduct is really responsible for the soggy

mess along Route 209 that has gotten considerably worse over the last

10 years.

Sickles said the water just bubbles up from the cracks in the

concrete in his basement — even when it doesn't rain.

" It's like there is too much water in the ground already, " Sickles

said, showing off the water line on the concrete wall of his basement.

" There's no place for this to go. "

Nearly every house has a black discharge hose running from the

basement through the yard, gushing water into already-soggy patches of

grass.

The land around 's house turns into a lake when the snow

melts, and her driveway is so muddy your feet sink when you walk to

her front door.

Utilites currently spend about $10.4 billion annually on large-scale

repairs and improvements on drinking water infrastructure, a figure

that has been relatively flat during the past two decades, the EPA said.

Cities have a hard time convincing residents that they should spend

money on something they never see, buried hundreds of feet

underground. And often, public officials pawn the responsibility off

on the next person elected, Kail said.

Repairs tend to be long and costly, especially since many systems were

built nearly a century ago, deep underground, where buildings and

major roads now stand.

Even monitoring pipes for vulnerabilities can be expensive and tricky,

since it's not possible to shut down a city's water supply to test for

leaks. If New York were to do that to the Delaware Aqueduct, for

example, the 13 1/2-foot-diameter tunnel might crumble under the

crushing weight of the land without the water to support the duct.

The Department of Environmental Protection monitors leaks by sending

water through the tunnel and measuring how much comes out at the end.

The department also sends robots that swim through the tunnels and

collect data on their condition.

The amount of water being lost is inconsequential, given that

reservoirs are so full, said Environmental Commissioner Lloyd.

But she said it is important to fix the leaks now because there is no

way to tell how the system might deteriorate in the next 30 years.

New York has spent decades digging a new $6 billion tunnel that will

create an alternative source of water delivery and allow for easier

inspection and repair of the other tunnels. It is expected to be

completed by 2020.

Around the country, water rates are going up to help pay for the

repairs, estimated at anywhere between $550 and $7,000 per household

during the next three decades.

Augusta, Ga., raised rates 11 percent from 2001 through 2007 for a

$300 million program to improve the deteriorating water system.

Cleveland gradually increased rates by about 6 percent for more than

15 years to fund a $750 million project to address aging and

inefficient pipes. Springfield, Mass., doubled rates for its 250,000

customers. Philadelphia, Kenosha, Wis., Portsmouth, Va., and other

cities have followed suit.

Many engineers and water utilities say water bills around the country

are too low. In New York City, where a studio apartment can rent for

more than $3,000 a month, the cost of water and sewage is about $60

for an entire single-family home.

" We are the only utility where the raw material is free, but the

infrastructure is the most expensive, " said Nick DeBenedictis, chief

executive of Aqua America, a water company that serves 3 million

people in 13 states. " We have to dig up streets in order to do it, but

once we make investments it's good for years. "

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