A Main Water Problem

Journalists, and yes, of course, bloggers, are up in arms over the recent water main problems in Los Angeles.  Drive somewhere in our City of Angels, see a road dug up, and chances are a water main has burst, sending city employees in a tizzy who would rather make sure that Mayor Antonio’s one million trees die in supermarket parking lots.

  Alas, what is going on with these water mains?  After all, LA’s water system is an engineering marvel, or nightmare, depending on your perspective.  It’s a cultural icon, sparking the iconic 1970s film, Chinatown.  William Mulholland, yes, of Mulholland Drive fame, used his self-taught engineering skills to design a system that diverted (or rob, depending on your perspective) water from the Central Valley’s Owens Valley to Los Angeles.  The 230-plus mile Los Angeles Aqueduct uses gravity to pull the water, creating a cost-effective way to irrigate Los Angeles . . . while slowly killing off the Owens Valley economy.  Mulholland got his own, as he eventually had to resign when a dam he designed and supervised burst in the Santa Clarita Valley, killing over 400 people.  That’s why we have engineering schools.

Los Angeles’ water mains are now over eighty years old.  Once built for a town of a few hundred thousand, they are supporting a population of 4 million in Los Angeles proper alone.  While fingers are pointed, accusations tossed, and reasons conjectured, no one is really suggesting that . . .

The pipes are just old.

It’s odd . . . during my trip to Ottawa, I noticed huge swaths of streets torn up all over the city.  I asked my host what was going on, and she noted that many of the water mains are . . . about 80 years old and need to be replaced.  It’s a rough go in neighborhoods like Little Italy, Chinatown, and Wellington Village that are or have recently seen their main drags torn up, and tough on businesses . . . but the city is better off in the long run.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper in the long run to take a hard look at Los Angeles’ water infrastructure now and make the required upgrades, rather than waiting for a pipe to burst here and there?  Plus, in an era where water is becoming scarce, this would be a good time to create a system of greywater that residents could use for landscaping and other purposes that do not require potable water . . . it’s absurd to use the same water we drink to water our plants.

Such a plan would require a massive bond measure, for which I doubt city leaders have an appetite during these economic times . . . but considering how important water is, and how pricey it will become, this seems to be a social program in desperate need of funding.

What do you think can be done in dealing with our water problem in Los Angeles?