Philadelphia Struggles With Water Main Breaks

The need for Philadelphia to update its water infrastructure is never more apparent than in the winter.

Over a 24-hour period this month, the city had eight water main breaks. Last January, in total, it had 212, according to WPVI. "Many of the mains in Philadelphia are over a hundred years old, but even newer ones break when the water temperature gets close to freezing."

Water department employees are busy fixing mains all over the city. They "are on 12 hour shifts now running from one break to the next," the report said. Sometimes restoring service can take a while.

"It could be faster, it could be longer but we try to keep it between an 8-12 hour window," said John DiGuilio of the Philadelphia Water Department. DiGuilio urged customers to prepare for the worst.

"We always recommend, I think everyone recommends, having some water stored in the house. One case of water, two cases of water so you have water to drink, water to cook with while we restore your water service as quickly as possible," he said, per the report.

Aging infrastructure is a major factor in this problem. Last month, a daycare was forced to evacuate due to a water main break, NBC 10 reported. The water main in question dated back to 1893. The city's infrastructure "has resulted in an average of nearly two water main breaks a day -- a number that is still below the national average," the report said.

"Philadelphia now uses a point system based primarily on age and location to track, identify, repair and replace the most vulnerable pipes. Workers have headsets that help them literally listen to more than 1,000 miles of underground pipeline to maintain the country's oldest water system.The average Philadelphia water pipe is 67 years old," the report continued.

Philadelphia is not the only city that faces major infrastructure challenges. But repairs, even sorely-needed ones, are expensive. "There are an estimated 240,000 water main breaks per year in the United States," according to a water infrastructure report card published last year by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

"Assuming every pipe would need to be replaced, the cost over the coming decades could reach more than $1 trillion, according to the American Water Works Association (AWWA)," the report said.

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