"I hope you've got good plumbing. I've been eating a lot of cheese lately. I just can't seem to get enough cheese." - Uncle Buck
Posted on 03/06/2008 10:47:08 AM PST by sten
water mains last well over 100 years. so the chance of 2 breaking on the same day are probably pretty slim. a couple of news stories today made me stop and do a quick google for water main breaks in march 2008. the results are a bit odd… considering I have not heard anything about it in the news, beyond the requried 'boil your water' statements.
the following is a list of water main breaks over the last month. I have made an effort not to overlap stories, so they should all signify a unique event. note the dates and locations as you go along.
---- Water back on in Treasure Island (FLORIDA) Originally Posted 2/5/2008 3:45:54 AM http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=73193
Water main break closes part of E Columbus Drive today(FLORIDA - TAMPA) February 11, 2008 http://blogs.tampabay.com/breakingnews/2008/02/water-main-brea.html
Workers cap major water main break in Detroit(MICHIGAN) February 19, 2008 http://www.motorcitymoms.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080219/CFP10/80219022/1003/NEWS01
Boil water notice in Tarpon Springs (FLORIDA - TAMPA) Originally Posted 2/19/2008 6:01:59 PM http://www.tampabays10.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=74372
Water Main Break Floods Homes(NEW YORK) Published Feb 24, 2008 http://www.rnews.com/Story_2004.cfm?ID=58598&rnews_story_type=18
Water main bursts, creates traffic snarls(FLORIDA - MELBOURNE) February 28, 2008 http://www.floridatoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080228/BREAKINGNEWS/80228036/-1/archives
Thousands lose water service when main breaks(COLORADO) created: 2/29/2008 7:21:27 PM http://www.9news.com/news/local/article.aspx?storyid=87320
Water main break snarls Main Street(OHIO) Last Updated: 1:10 pm | Saturday, March 1, 2008 http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080301/NEWS01/803010421/1092/NEWS0103
District issues boil-water order after main break (CALIFORNIA - SAN DIEGO) March 1, 2008 http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20080301-1257-bn29boil.html
Water Main Break Prompts Response At UConn Health Center(CONNECTICUT) March 02, 2008 http://www.topix.net/content/trb/2008/03/water-main-break-prompts-response-at-uconn-health-center
Water main break in Flint leaves some residents without water(MICHIGAN) Sunday March 02, 2008, 10:18 PM http://www.mlive.com/flintjournal/index.ssf/2008/03/water_main_break_in_flint_leav.html
Water Main Break Closes Aikahi Elementary (HONOLULU) POSTED: 7:23 am HST March 3, 2008 http://www.kitv.com/news/15474532/detail.html?subid=10101241
Water main break forces Philly school closed(PENNSYLVANIA) Monday, March 03, 2008 | 12:13 PM http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/story?section=news/local&id=5995441
Water main break on Siesta Key (FLORIDA) March 03, 2008 15:41 PM http://m.tampabays10.com/news.jsp?key=92091&rc=lo
Water main break closes Hampstead Hill Academy (MARYLAND) 8:30 AM EST, March 4, 2008 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/baltimore_city/bal-hampstead0304,0,3975094.story
Allentown crews restoring water service(PENNSYLVANIA) 4:38 PM EST, March 4, 2008 http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-watermain0304-cn,0,3605658.story
Florida Street Water Main is repaired(ALABAMA - MOBILE) 3:10 p.m. ET, Tues., March. 4, 2008 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23469079/
Water main break at South and Forest(VERMONT) March 4, 2008 http://www.rutlandherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/NEWS/347689764
Broken water main disrupts Wheeler Road traffic(VIRGINIA - RICHMOND) Tuesday, March 4, 2008 9:20 a.m. http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/latest/lat_030408_trafficproblem.shtml
Water restored to Golden Gate schools after main break(CALIFORNIA - SAN FRANCISCO) March 5, 2008 http://www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080305/NEWS01/80305033/1075
City finishes repairing water main break(ARIZONA) -- broke on March 3rd Wednesday, March 05, 2008 http://azdailysun.com/articles/2008/03/05/news/local/20080305_local_news_15.txt
Siesta Key has another water-main break (FLORIDA) Wednesday, March 05, 2008 http://www.bradenton.com/breakingnews/story/447037.html
2nd water main break prompts new boil water advisory(FLORIDA) Posted: March 5, 2008 11:13 AM http://www.wwsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7968929 http://www.wwsb.com/Global/story.asp?S=7969096
Water main break closes JJC (ILLINIOS) March 5, 2008 http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/heraldnews/news/825474,4_1_JO05_JUCO_S1.article
Water-Main Break Closes Roads(CONNECTICUT) POSTED: 10:22 am EST March 6, 2008 http://www.wfsb.com/traffic/15512054/detail.html?rss=hart&psp=news
Massive Water Main Break in Cleveland Causes Street Collapse, Flood (ILLINIOS) Thursday, March 06, 2008 http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,335571,00.html
Watermain Break In Hartford(CONNECTICUT) 11:09 AM EST, March 6, 2008 http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hcu-hrtfrdwatermainbreak,0,7575205.story
Water main break closes Tri-C Metro campus(ILLINIOS) March 06, 2008 10:18AM http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2008/03/water_main_break_closes_tric_m.html
I would think the terrorists would want something a bit more flashy and dramatic...like airplanes flying into buildings. Sounds more like shoddy workmanship and natural ground movement.
Don’t water mains tend to break more in the winter? I know every winter there are multiple breaks in DC water mains. They’re always announcing them because of affect on traffic.
Those two things have nothing to do with one another.
There are thousands and thousands of water mains in the country.
PS, sounds like all your sources are from the press!
You're going waaayyyy beyond reason here. What is your basis for saying water mains last "100 years?" Here in my town, the water mains that break tend to be older ones; or ones in areas with shifting soil.
How old are the lines that are breaking in all of those stories? What kinds of soil are they in? Are there other factors involved, such as digging in the area, or heavy traffic over a portion of the line?
The city employs several maintenance men and has several trucks because this kind of thing happens all the time. Maybe they are paranoid, too, but they are always digging up something somewhere.
the winter doesn’t have much impact down here in florida nor in arizona or san diego.
It not just the water mains either.
Its all of our infrastructures.
Most cities are well over 100 years old and how many thousands of miles of water mains must there be in the US?
Considering the number of water mains in the country, I suspect thousands break daily.
I used to work in water/sewer. There is a LOT of pipe out there, mostly laid by government employees. On top of road built and maintained by government employees.
It is not surprising that there are a lot of breaks. Hell in ATL they don’t know where they are until a sinkhole shows up and a car falls in.
You might also be suprised how dynamic things are underground where there is a lot of underground water runoff. It’s not like you just plant a pipe and can forget about it. Things shift.
Guess that rules out the FReeper tradition of taking a shower with terrorism news.
well... 21 water mains have broken in the last 5 1/2 days (which i found after only 30 minutes of googling)
are you saying that’s common?
It's probably a combination of age on the system, cold weather, and soil conditions. Plus somebody could have been excavating in the area.
If a section of your area has water mains all installed at about the same time, you can expect more breaks as the pipe nears the end of its useful life.
We have been dealing with this for years in the Atlanta metro, as the much-abused water system is failing in a "cascade effect" from lack of maintenance and upgrade. So is the sewer system - there have been a couple of spectacular main drain collapses, some involving loss of life. Thank heavens we moved to Cobb County!
Besides all that being found in the press, your links don’t work.
The term “hyperlink” was coined in 1965 (or possibly 1964) by Ted Nelson at the start of Project Xanadu. Nelson had been inspired by “As We May Think,” a popular essay by Vannevar Bush. In the essay, Bush described a microfilm-based machine (the Memex) in which one could link any two pages of information into a “trail” of related information, and then scroll back and forth among pages in a trail as if they were on a single microfilm reel.
So much for Wiki. Edmund Husserl came up with the basic idea in 1900. Nice try by the Bushes.
Do I have time to take a sponge bath in boiled water?
"I hope you've got good plumbing. I've been eating a lot of cheese lately. I just can't seem to get enough cheese." - Uncle Buck
I can’t speak for the other areas, but the water main break in Cleveland today was likely caused by the incompetence of decades of Democrat control of city government.
When you have a entrenched union city work force, coupled with city leadership more interested in social engineering and wealth redistribution, you end up with crumbling infrastructure.
Plenty of the blame goes to Kookcinich, but there’s a lot to go around within the political class that keeps getting elected to fix the problems they themselves created.
That's the question. EPA study in 2002 about the need for water infrastructure replacement used this model for the longevity of water pipes:
It was assumed that pipes installed before 1910 last an average of 120 years.Pipe installed from 1911 to 1945 is assumed to last an average of 100 years. Pipe installed after 1945 is assumed to last an average of 75 years. In estimating when the current inventory of pipe will be replaced,the model assumes that the actual life span of the pipe will be distributed normally around its expected average life; that is, pipe expected to last 75 years will last 50 to 100 years, pipe expected to last 100 years will last from 66 to 133 years, and pipe expected to last 120 years will last 80 to 160 years.A large portion of the install base is quite old and is wearing out and needs to be replaced. The frequency of replacement is only going to accelerate.
“Water Main Breaks” is code for suspicious event
forces area lockdown. Must investigate without
causing panic amongst the sheeple.
sorry if you have to cut & paste.
if the forum posting system was smarter it would automatically turn text into links where it found “http://";
as is.. i don’t have time to copy / paste, adjust , end anchor for each
If you're curious, call your city councilman or county commissioner. I'll bet you'll find that an upgrade to a pumping system or distribution point and consequent rise in pressure is causing older fittings to fail.
We had just that situation in our neighborhood . . . we are down by the river at one of the lowest points in the county, and after some modifications to the trunk line street pressure exceeded 250 pounds in some areas . . . . we had pipes and PRVs blowing everywhere. We replaced 2 PRVs ourselves before we found out what the trouble was. The county installed another reduction valve, and all was well.
. . . I used to deal with municipal water systems in my other life as a civil litigator, and these sorts of problems are actually pretty common. Not everyday stuff, but happen often enough to keep the lawyers busy!
Forget it! You are worrying about absolutely nothing at all. Normal wear and tear, especially in urban areas where the supply lines tend to be old.
pretty warm here in florida, and i’m pretty sure there were no frosts in san diego or arizona...
For the most industrialized developed nation on earth, this doesn’t sound like a lot to me. Imagine the number of miles of water mains there are throughout the country. Hundreds of thousands I’m sure.
maybe. but 21 in the last 5 1/2 days... seems like a bit much.
as someone posted, pipe will last from 75-130 years. if this were common, then i should be able to find a similar volume during any given month last summer (i found an increase since january, but i only posted events from the last month)
[... 21 water mains have broken in the last 5 1/2 days (snip) Are you saying that’s common?...]
Any time the press reports something as non-newsworthy
as this, I pause to wonder. I have come to realize (by
observation) that there is no such thing as coincidental
reporting from the liberal, anti-American media. ALL
liberal news has an agenda and is (usually) designed
to influence and/or manipulate the sheeple.
Water mains can leak from a number of sources including joints, taps, connections, fittings and the pipe itself.
The term ‘water main break’ doesn’t mean jack.
What??? Nothing on the seemingly bi-weekly occurance of a water main break in Albuquerque? Not a one on that list - must have had at least 10 in the last year or so.
Well our town’s (NW Tampa) water main broke this am so it is rather strange. Perhaps pump malfunction or something. Then again if they were all put in around the same time they’d tend to go bad around the same time I’d think.
FWIW, there are probably dozens of water main breaks in my hometown every year. No terrorism required -- a lot of them are just old.
21 in a week for the whole country is nothing. Normal.
It's reported in the newspaper either because it snarls traffic or because (as in Atlanta) there's a corruption/incompetence angle.
Whoops, meant to say 20.
Well, if the NW Tampa water system is built like any other large water system in the USA, there are multiple water mains both for transmission and distribution. More likely, there are hundreds to thousands of individual reaches of pipe in a variety of sizes, pressures and capacities.
Your town probably has a ‘water main break’ each and every day.
Well, a comparison to the number of breaks in other months might be appropriate for a rational judgment to be made.
There is nothing ‘going on’. And you missed several main breaks. We’ve had at least four breaks in my neck of the woods in the past two years. Normal, I assure you.
Many of the water mains in American cities are now well over the century mark. Old clay pipes and cast iron does not last forever. I believe the newer plastic on metal will last longer, but they are all dying from the day they go in the ground. Add in natural earth movement and you get “stuff happens”.
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: Lord, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: You know when fluoridation first began?
Group Capt. Lionel Mandrake: I... no, no. I don't, Jack.
General Jack D. Ripper: Nineteen hundred and forty-six. Nineteen forty-six, Mandrake. How does that coincide with your post-war Commie conspiracy, huh? It's incredibly obvious, isn't it? A foreign substance is introduced into our precious bodily fluids without the knowledge of the individual. Certainly without any choice. That's the way your hard-core Commie works.
Bush’s fault.
Not to mention flying manhole covers.
I here ya and I gotta apologize for that. Darn lactose intolerance.
Lord have mercy, I can’t believe there are now 46 responses about this nonsense.
I can speak to the first couple, in Tampa Bay.
East Columbus Ave water mains are probably 100 years old. The warranty expired, I suppose.
The mains in Tarpon Springs (all of north Pinellas County) were laid down in the late 70’s and began breaking wide open in the late 80s. The county sued the contractor back to the stone age, and have been replacing the water mains since then.
Treasure Island: The ground around there is coastal sand, not the best foundation, and there is always a lot of traffic pounding the ground as folks drive to and from the beach.
I don’t think that there is anything unusual.
Most breaks are from old age; once buried, mains are rarely serviced other than to repair breaks or an occasional addition of a tap.
Just avoid using any code in the rest of your text and the url will become active when you preview; if it doesn’t, go back and look for code you may have left in.
I do it all the time.
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