This is the third story in past couple of days on water main leaks that have been characterised by public officials attempting to put citizens fears to rest about water leaks. This latest one is from PA. I am including links to the other two stories below (Texas: 94 water mains break in 4 days amd Columbus, Ohio, 59 Breaks in one week). Maybe it is just the cold water, but a worker on the scene of the story made this comment about it being weather related:

"I used to think that, but we were busy last summer, too," he said.

Wintry gurgle: more water mains break

Source: Lancaster New Era Lancaster, PA Publication date: Jan 29, 2000

Saturday morning was quiet, still and cold on the edge of Cabbage Hill west of the Water Street Rescue Mission.

But if you listened closely, you could hear the surging rush of water just below the street.

It was another water main break -- a daily occurrence -- as the temperatures dip and Lancaster's century-old cast iron pipes and underlying rock shift ever so slightly.

"This is prime time for us," said George Snyder, a foreman with the Water Bureau's Transmission and Distribution unit.

Slipping, then regaining his balance on the street's water- slicked ice, Snyder said T&D crews are called out daily this time of year.

"And it's never seven to three, either," added Donnie Kirchner, assistant water superintendent.

The break near the eastern end of West Strawberry Street was one of two city Public Works department employees were dealing with after dawn.

At East Marion and North Franklin streets, the sound of jackhammers reverberated off the houses.

Water there gurgled up from a seam in the macadam and around a telephone pole. Tom Slocum, labor supervisor with the crew, said he expected to spend four hours or more there.

First, the crews must find the broken main and shut off its water supply. Then the job is to dig it up and seal it, Slocum said.

The first block of North Franklin Street would probably be without water during the repair.

The rushing sound below Strawberry Street was a giveaway, but usually the crews must search for the break, Snyder said.

"We drill holes with a rock drill and wherever it spouts the highest, that's were we dig," he said.

Most mains break vertically, Snyder said. Then, a steel and rubber "band-aid" is placed around the pipe and bolted in place. If a pipe breaks horizontally, the broken section must be cut out and a length of new pipe installed.

City water crews are responsible for 500 miles of pipe running under Lancaster and its surrounding suburbs, he said.

In recent days water crews repaired breaks across the city and suburbs, including problem spots at Broad and Water streets, Lime and New streets, in Millersville and in Manheim Township.

But this morning as he worked in the 17-degree weather on Franklin Street, between the Roadhouse Cafe and the Lancaster County Prison, Slocum didn't subscribe to the temperature theory of water main breaks.

"I used to think that, but we were busy last summer, too," he said. Publication date: Jan 29, 2000 ) 2000, NewsReal, Inc.

Links:

http://beta.newsreal.com/cgi-bin/NewsService?osform_template=pages/newsrealStory&ID=newsreal&storypath=News/Story_2000_02_05.NRdb@2@20@3@340&path=News/Category.NRdb@2@16

Texas water mains breaking (94 in 4 days):

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002UXl

Columbus Ohio Water Mains Breaking (59 in one week

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 05, 2000

Answers

Carl, a serious question. What search engine do you use to find all of these articles? Yahoo? Something else?

JosecanUc

-- JoseMiami (caris@prodigy.net), February 05, 2000.

Hi Jose, No search engine will get everything or even more than a little bit. That said, I use every search engine I am aware of, Alta Vista, Hotbot, Yahoo, etc. I check the news wires regularly. And I use the ajr search engine and go through as many daily newspaper websites as I can in the course of a day...Here's a couple of particularly useful sites:

Newspapers:

http://www.ecola.com/

International:

http://www.concentric.net/~stevewt/international/

ajr--great site:

http://www.newslink.org/alter.html

there are thousands of news and news gathering sites on the web and I visit as many as I can...just type in "news and lower slobovia" in any search engine and good hunting....

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), February 06, 2000.

When you you sleep!! Saw your snooze handle, once a time before SYSOPS deleted such. Fun and humor, Thank You!

-- 1 2 3 (we@reitmow.com), February 06, 2000.

The question I keep having regarding all these watermain breaks (and our current heating oil crisis) is about the weather. I keep on reading that the breaks and shortages are due to an extremely cold winter, and yet here in Western Mass, it's been one of the muildest winters I can remember. We didn't even get any snow until the second week of January. So, is it BS? Has anyone gone through records of the last few years to check what kind of average temps we had across the country? I for one, would be interested in knowing...

-- Lurker (Loki@madhouse.com), February 06, 2000.

Scranton, PA has been averaging one major water main break every three or four days for the last couple of weeks. Throw in some natural gas line breaks and a major gasoline pipeline rupture and you get the impression that since the first of the year, the Squirrel King has unleashed a new, subterrrainian front against humankind.

Pipeline munching moles, anyone?

WW

-- Wildweasel (vtmldm@epix.net), February 06, 2000.

In Western PA one week ago we had a water main break in the evening which wasn't fixed until well into the next day.

The in-laws were over so we needed some serious flushing water. Since I had prepped, it wasn't a problem except for having to lug the cases of water up the stairs. We had to shower at work which was inconvenient, but okay.

Two nights later, our power was on and off for about 12 hours into the morning. My solar panels aren't up yet (zoning problems), but we had the batteries and inverter installed pre-rollover just in case and charged from the grid. Worked like a charm. Natural gas furnace could keep running because of it so the house stayed nice and warm.

No problems since.

-- nothere nothere (notherethere@hotmail.com), February 07, 2000.