UPDATE: You can read the full report on the water pipeline breaks here (WaterPipeBreaks.pdf)
The bad news keeps coming for the DWP — even on a day when its management was boasting to the world how the public had reduced water consumption to a 32-year low but couldn’t answer questions about the impact of conservation on its revenue.
Professor Jean-Pierre Bardet, the head of USC’s civil engineering department, said a team of scientists he led has determined that DWP’s requirement that lawns only be watered on Mondays and Thursdays caused uneven pressures that stressed pipes and led to the rash of blowouts of water mains last summer and fall.
”The bottom line is, you want to create a more even usage of water
pressure so you don’t have a sudden drop of water pressure at a given
time of the day,” said Bardet, told Councilwoman Jan Perry’s Energy and Environment Committee Tuesday afternoon.
The ream’s report said: “Those water pressure drops on these days were caused by an increased
water flow during the watering of lawns. As a result,
the cyclic levels of water pressure increased and accelerated the metal
fatigue failures of aged and corroded cast-iron pipes.”
The DWP’s initial reaction was to deny the report and try to deflect responsibility for an ill-conceived water rationing policy, according to statements the utility released. Here’s KPCC’s updated report:
The DWP has released a statement about Bardet’s report,
indicating nobody there has yet read it. “The Department believes
corrosion is the indisputable and primary factor in most of our water
main breaks, including those from last September,” the DWP statement
says. “We believe Dr. Bardet’s findings will support this position.”
DWP says its own internal report blames blowouts in September
2009 on system pressures created by repairing breaks from earlier in
the summer. “It is the Department’s position that the operational
changes to accommodate City Trunk Line repairs resulted in ruptures on
mostly cast iron mains, which accounts for the increased severity of the
breaks in the weeks that followed,” the report says.
Let’s hope the mayor delivers on his promise by Thursday and cleans out those at DWP responsible for its many failures and bring transparency and professionalism to the nation’s largest municipal utility.
Of course, you’ll have a hard time find anyone to book your bet on him delivering what he has promised.
Rotate! Rotate! Rotate!
When the two day a week ordinance started my sprinkler pipes busted as well. I incurred thousands of dollars of repair bills.
In addition, their broken mains sent rocks and stones into my plumbing. That resulted in additional plumbing bills. This all added up to several thousand dollars.
Might I have cause for legal action and a chance of winning?
looks like DWp bites this one for Villariagosa who was responsible, who put his face on posters in the neighborhoods and all over the press proclaiming ‘his’ policy for conservation. did anyone bother to ask any of the hundreds of qualified engineers on the city payroll if it was a good idea? what leadership. get rid of this bum, we can’t afford his largess nor his incompetence!
Is anyone (Wendy) calculating the cost of Villariagosa’s DWP conservation fiasco? How much more can this thug drive down our infrastructure? Actually, I really take that back…!
Ron, don`t get your hopes high. The mayor is not going “to clean out”. He will just dress her up with new clothes. She will still be filthy and sick.
Don’t jump so fast. First of all, the City is obligated to conserve due water to State water shortages.
It is easy to blame the LADWP. The question is – what do you blame them for?
First of all, the money that has been transferred over these many years as “water excess” to support the City Budget needed to go into the infrastructure.
The courts declared that transfer to be illegal, but I do not believe that the City has sent the money back. I don’t think it is in a “lock box”. The City cannot afford to give it back.
The issues facing us today are these:
1) How do we literally – “Keep the City above water” – in other words – the money that the LADWP promised the City from the electric side needs to be transferred ASAP to keep the City from running out of money by May 5th.
2)The City has to understand that these transfers are essentially an illegal tax – and they will have to take their plans for these transfers out of their future budgets.
3)The City Council – under the lead of Council member Perry – the Chair of the Energy and Environment Committee – will have to realize and write the appropriate recommendations for the following ( which she asked the LADWP to report back to her about today) -
“What will it cost the LADWP to replace the cast iron infrastructure over the next five years?”
The LADWP and its consultants as well as the CAO will need to report back to the Energy and Environment Committee to determine the 5 year project cost assessment management plan – how many miles of pipe – what the geology is like.
Council member Perry wants to know how to do a pipe assessment program and the projected dollar figure. This program is literally at the level of JPL, satellites, aerial photos, and moisture sensor technology.
4)The LADWP and its consultants will also need to report back to the Energy and Environment Committee to determine the appropriate method of water rationing. In order to prevent major pressure changes any days of the week, I think (based upon the comments of the consultant) we could move to alternating days based upon the street address number – odd or even. Then the amount of time that you are allowed to water with electronic sprinklers and what time during the day would be part of the mandatory conservation methods.
I have to say – Jan Perry is on top of this issue – she understands it very well.
“A team of scientists from USC, Cornell University, Flow Science Incorporated, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory and other engineering firms’ 167-page report that makes recommendations, analyzes DWP strategy for managing pipes.”
To access the report by Dr. Jean-Pierre Bardet, chairman of USC’s Civil and Environmental Department, visit
http://www.yousendit.com/transfer.php?action=batch_download&send_id=851142045&email=99e53135e44e85fafaa100870eb15dca
Make the transfer….RECALL THE MAYOR!
The real cause of the water line blowouts has now been released. DWP will never admit the Monday Thursday water conservation plan was the culprit. They still repair the infrastructure at a snails pace. DWP is too busy working on another top priority project which is to replace all the old 6” water meters attached to commercial properties. You ask why replace these working meters? The meters slow down after years of service. They do not count the true delivery of water to the buildings which results in a reduction of revenue to DWP. Commercial property owners who have had these 6” meters replaced are suddenly receiving water bills that have doubled or tripled in expense. DWP is more concerned on cash flow rather than continued water flow.