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Water Mains and Waiting Games: Diagnosing a problem plaguing our streets


Olde Richmond resident Bridget Layden has a stack of photographs detailing her homes partial-destruction earlier this summer. In some of them, three feet of water has overtaken her basements utilities, destroying her washer, dryer and many of the gifts she and her husband recently received for their wedding. In others, six inches of mud lays thick across the floor, carpet and stuck to the recently-finished sheetrock walls. The photos showed the aftermath of 45 minutes of flooding on a recent afternoon.

There was nothing we could do,she said. The water was flooded three or four steps up, and it was three feet of water all throughout the basement.

Today, Layden said, two industrial fans and a vacuum cleaner remain in her Boston Street basement, temporary consolation prizes courtesy of the City of Philadelphia.

Outside, a Philadelphia Water Department sawhorse sits atop a ditch PWD filled in mid-August. The street remains unpaved, covered in dirt, cars and trucks kicking up dust storms in their wake. Water continues to leak, lightly, along the eastern half of the street, along the sidewalk.

The scene on Boston Street is not totally unique for Philadelphia. Hardly a day goes by where you dont see a story about water main breaks flooding entire city blocks, or sinkholes closing down an intersection, like one did last month at Tulip and Huntingdon Streets. Its a problem that, due to Philadelphias underground water system, is not going away any time soon, and theres little we can do about it except wait.

According to statistics provided by the Philadelphia Water Department, there have been 354 water main breaks in the 19123, 19125, and 19134 area codes since 2010.

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Those numbers fluctuate by year, with the peak happening in 2013, when there were 18 breaks in 19123, 18 in 19125, and 40 in 19134. So far this year, the 19123 area code has seen five water main breaks, 19125 has had six, and there have been 19 in 19134. On a given year, there are about 700 breaks throughout Philadelphia.

When broken down by mile of piping, Philadelphia sees about 240 breaks per 1,000 miles. The old pipes pumping water throughout the city last about 125 years, and the Water Department is attempting to replace all pipes within that time frame. In Fiscal Year 2016, which began in July, the Streets Department is attempting to replace the pipes at a faster rate every 100 years. A baby born in 2016 could live long enough to see every mile of pipe replaced in his or her lifetime! So that’s something,notes the Streets Departments website.

For Laydens house and three others on the 2300 block of East Boston Street, this ordeal began when the city served them letters on July 19 signed off by the Philadelphia Water Department. The letter indicating that, after an inspection of the site, underground materials, including their laterals — the pipe that transports water from inside the home to the city’s sewer system — were in need of repair. The property owners were expected to get the job done within 10 days, or else their water would be shut off.

The property owners would have to pay for the work out of their own pockets, and it would cost nearly $6,000, each.

It was an annoying ordeal, Layden and two other neighbors, Jeff Markovitz and Dave Strunk (Full disclosure: friends of mine), say. And about a month after the initial letters were received, the neighbors had organized to hire a single, verified plumbing company to take care of their problem.

On August 13, the plumber dug up the sidewalk and replaced the laterals underneath the ground.

The job was done in a single day. On the 14th, a Friday, Markovitz came home around noon and saw the spot the plumber had dug up was cascading water down the street. The rest of his neighbors whod had the job done a day earlier were still at work. He called 911 then called his neighbors to inform them of what had happened.

Pretty soon, the Fire Department, the Water Department and the plumbing company that had done the work showed up. An argument began between the Water Department representatives and the plumbers.

Both parties were interested in coming up to the homeowners and telling us it was another persons fault,Markovitz recalls.

The Water Department then began digging a gigantic hole in the middle of the street to replace the brittle cast-iron pipes below Boston Street.

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I got home around 1PM and when I first turned down the street, all I saw was a gigantic hole and water streaming down,said Strunk. I was horrified.

When Strunk got in his house, he immediately went down to the basement to check the water levels. His basement was dry. Not so for Markovitz or Layden, the latter of whom got the worst of it. The fire department told her they could pump the water out of the basement then and there, and that if they didn’t do it, they doubted anyone else would. Once the water was gone, she was left with muddy floors and walls. Her appliances were destroyed, as were the wedding gifts and other objects shed and her husband, Jim, had been storing down there.

Everything appliance-wise is gone,she said today. The only thing in my basement now is a hot water heater.

Since the ordeal, Strunk, Markovitz, and Layden have attempted to get in touch with the city and figure out when the rest of the street would be paved. When contacted by The Spirit, the Water Department was helpful in providing the aforementioned statistics on water main breaks, but vague on when the Boston Street problem would be resolved.

The water main was repaired and was referred to the Streets Department for permanent restoration, but there are other issues on the block which may not be related to the water main break,said Laura Copeland, PWDs Public Information Officer.

Boston Street, however, is not on the Streets Department’s official paving schedule. For their part, Keisha McCarty-Skelton at the Streets Department notes that the street will be evaluated for a future paving project “if needed.”

The neighbors on the 2300 block of Boston Street, for the most part, just want to know when the work will be done, they can have their sidewalk back, and can sit outside without dust flying in their faces every time a car passes.

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