Los Angeles Department of Water and Power officials said they are considering a 2 percent hike in water fees for residents to raise money for pipe replacements in Los Angeles in the wake of last Tuesday’s flood near UCLA.
The department told the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday it needs more funding from the city if it’s going to replace pipes faster and prevent another incident akin to the water main break on Sunset Boulevard.
“There’s no technological thing that’s going to get us out of (our aging infrastructure),” said Jim McDaniel, LADWP senior assistant general manager, at the L.A. City Council’s Energy and Environment Committee meeting on Wednesday. “We just need to replace more pipes.”
Because one of the pipes that burst was built in 1921, many officials at Wednesday’s meeting called for a faster replacement of the city’s aging water pipes.
Marcie Edwards, general manager for LADWP, said the department plans to request roughly $500 million in additional infrastructure funds from the council to replace pipes.
However, Edwards warned against replacing water mains so quickly. She said doing so will starve other repair projects and also generate much traffic, as replacing water mains often means closing down streets for hours and sometimes days at a time.
A few councilmembers brought up the idea of having more extensive testing of water pipes for leakage. McDaniel said water pipe testing, while possible, merely buys the agency time and does not provide a comprehensive solution.
Edwards told the city council that the agency has made a substantial effort to replace its aging water mains in the city in the past few years. She pointed to base rate increases of about $1 a month per resident in both 2008 and 2009, which helped to more than double the number of water pipes being replaced annually.
McDaniel said LADWP is currently on schedule to replace every pipe in the city in 315 years. With additional funding, the agency can bring that number down to 170 years or even fewer, he said.
Officials said the age of a pipe is not the only factor in a water main burst. Other factors, such as the material of the pipe and how pipes are welded together, also play a role, McDaniel said.
McDaniel said the 30-inch pipe from the Sunset Boulevard water main was built in 1921 and had no prior leaks, while the 36-inch pipe built in 1956 had five prior leaks over the last 10 years. Neither pipe was on schedule for replacement.
He said the Y-shaped juncture built for the water main in 1956 was fabricated out of leftover pieces from other jobs.
“It was probably not the most professional type of installation,” McDaniel said.
Addressing questions from councilmembers on whether the break could have been predicted, McDaniel said workers found two dime-sized holes in the water main that manifested before the leak occurred. However, water flowed not onto the street surface but rather into the storm drain, making it more difficult for the agency to see that there was something wrong with the pipe, he said.
Edwards said LADWP has so far received 16 to 17 claims for damage from last week’s flood. She said she expects the numbers to increase, but the agency has been in conversation with UCLA Chancellor Gene Block regarding who should pay for the damage incurred by the flood.
LADWP officials attended the L.A. City Council meeting at the request of councilmembers Paul Koretz, who represents the district that includes UCLA, and Herb J. Wesson Jr. The councilmembers filed a motion last week demanding that LADWP report the cause of the water main break.
Compiled by Jeong Park, Bruin senior staff.
“Edwards said LADWP has so far received 16 to 17 claims for damage from last week’s flood. She said she expects the numbers to increase, but the agency has been in conversation with UCLA Chancellor Gene Block regarding who should pay for the damage incurred by the flood.”
Hopefully it’s a short conversation… LADWP.