Water main break in Venice causes sinkhole

The latest in a string of water main blowouts in L.A. occurred this morning in Venice, causing a sinkhole on Lincoln Boulevard.

Since Sept. 1, there have been  34 "major blowouts" in L.A.'s water system in which streets have flooded and pavement has buckled.

Another one occurred Friday afternoon on Myra Avenue in Silver Lake. By contrast, the city had only 21 such ruptures in all of September 2008, 17 in September 2007 and 13 in September 2006.

The latest break occurred on Lincoln Boulevard near Palms Boulevard. KABC-TV footage showed a section of the roadway had buckled, creating a hole. Details of the break were not immediately available, but some lanes of Lincoln are closed.

City engineers trying to determine what's causing the water main bursts  have been taking soil samples, sending pipe pieces to labs and performing a statistical analysis on each break.

But some experts said a prime suspect should be the city's recent decision to allow sprinkling  only on Mondays and Thursdays.

They said that if more water flows through the system on those two days, then pressure suddenly changes on other days, it could put added stress on already-aging pipes.

-- Shelby Grad

Related: L.A. is sprinkling less, but gushing more

Comments

[Shari]

Is it time to get my life raft out?

[jackie]

Can anyone say conspiracy? Hmmm...lay offs, furloughs...cuts in pay. Now there is a need for the DWP. Overtime...hours, etc. What a joke.

[Valleymom]

When the DWP first publicized the two-days-a-week watering, I wondered at the time if it was going to create a problem with water pressure. I assumed that the experts at the DWP had looked into everything and that it would work. Wrong! With DWP officials making over $205,000 a year, and with water bills relentlessly climbing, we shouldn't tolerate this kind of ineptitude.

[Oflife]

Potential warning of impending earthquake? Ground stressing before the 'big one'?

[William Bednash]

It seems to me that the city should consider having different areas of L.A. have their sprinkler days on different days. This may even out the strain caused by pressure difference created when the whole city is watering on just mondays and thursdays

[John Dingler]

Two theories, the first speculative, the other realistic cut with a solution:

Nibiru is aiming its north pole toward Earth, causing Earth to wobble even more. As it wobbles, it causes the mantle to shift, leading to any solid infrastructure such as pipes or concrete to crack or break, which would account for broken pipes.

The second is a modification to the theory of old pipes. If the water pipes break so easily under the allegedly increased pressure from water rationing, then the pipes are too thin and too rigid for Lost Angeles' demands.

Conclusion: Whichever theory you subscribe to, it's clearly time to slow down dumping money into Afghanistan, Iraq, and into other military dictatorships, and start fixing our infrastructure in a socialistic way so that all small time peace socialists like my family and I can benefit, not just big time war socialists like the Pentagon's Blackwater, Xe, and DyneCorp.

[sethook]

A little bump in the wage and compensation packages at DWP would probably go a long way in ensuring these geysers go away. Remember, Business 101 says that if you pay exorbitant salaries, you attract and hold the best employees.

[Greg]

If you privatize the DWP things will just get a whole lot worse. Look at heath care.

[Rose]

I don't see the connection between water restriction and water main breaks.
Here in Orlando, FL, and other FL communities, we have had watering restriction (2 days a week) for YEARS!! Of course our 'pipes' are newer than
those in CA. We also have sinkholes that occur because: Too much rain in the
Aquifer OR Too little rain in the Aquifer...
Good Luck.

[Responsible Gardener]

I don't water. If it rains or sprinkles the few blades of life will make it.

[CB]

Heh. I wonder how different this would be if, instead of spending over $1 billion a year on welfare and housing and food stamp benefits for illegals, Los Angeles County was spending over $1 billion year maintaining and upgrading our ancient, crumbling infrastructure. Most of our water delivery system is 90 years old. Why would anyone be surprised that it is failing on an epic scale?

[Warren]

Should we start using more water or continue to cut back so the pipes can burst and waste the water?

[Don Evans]

My home was built in 1958. In 2000 half the homes in my development had been re-piped. I said I would not do this until the need became apparent. Ever lowering water pressure finally forced me to replace the plumbing in 2006.

Los Angeles has water mains that are almost 100 years old. This rash of breaks should be no surprise. Blaming system breaks on two day a week lawn watering is nonsense and DWP officials no that. The city has been taking money from the DWP for years rather than permitting proper maintenance. It’s a good bet there will be higher water use rates next year to pay for the mismanagement.

[john]

Remember 2 years ago when LA City council voted down salary increase for DWP. And 2 days later main buildings of LA City Hall and LAPD lost power for a full day. And a few days later LA City voted to allow the salary increase.

LOOK it UP!

[Mikey]

I would guess cavitation:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cavitation

[stewart]

well, as I reacll it sort of started with the great eartquake of 92? The one where fire and water were coming out of the same fissure, we were told then there was going to be more of these sort of problems because the earth has moved an inch or so here and there?
No greater example of that sort of movement exists as on Corall Canyon rd in malibu where as you grade up the road?
The double yellow line splits by about 6 inches, or try PCH south of Sunset where the utility pipes are above ground using expansion flanges because the ground is active there, though not as much as the rolling roads of Palos Verdes and least we for get 'Rolling Hills Estates?
get it? Rolling Hills? Get with it California. Its earthquake country and some one had best be paying attention to the pipes underground as well.

[Mark]

How about they modify the watering plan and base it on individual addresses?
Even addresses water Mon/Thur, odd addresses water Tue/Fri.

[Ricardo Guerra]

It's raging waters, Los Angeles version!!!

[michael McQuade]

Here is the likely reason: due to the watering restrictions on millions of homes and gardens, the soil is drying up and shrinking, thereby putting pressure on the old pipes as well as pulling away from the pipes and leaving empty space around the pipes, causing settling as the soil contracts... It's not the pressure in the pipes, it's the lack of support for the pipes caused by the shrinking drying soil caused by the water use restrictions. Look at the timing of the water use restrictions and the epidemic of pipes breaking.

[Violet]

When did the break happen on Laurel Canyon? Why is it reading back through the early 90's the DWP kept telling the people the rate hikes were for fixing the infrastructure?

Who ended up paying for the new house that is below me that took almost 4 years to rebuild? (The porch was all they kept). Why is the house next to it still red tagged? For those who forgot, the street went down after me running around the neighborhood like chicken little telling the Police, Fire department, and DWP that told me they had more important calls at that time rather than shoring up a street that was starting to cause the hillside to be unstable. Around 9 am the morning after, mud went down through the home and luckily the family had already left. It went right through a young girls bedroom.

When do we get something back for our money instead of lip service and corruption?

[Davey]

Driving around Larchmont just now, I saw two things that sure looked like new leaks. There was a DWP work crew fixing what looked like a burst pipe right on Larchmont (at 1st) and there was water slowly gurgling out of the pavement on Gower just N of Melrose.

[smartie pants]

It's the grond stressing before another quake. Hello!? Water rationing is everywhere and other cities don't have this sudden rash of MAJOR breaks. Why don't the news outlets focus a bit less on who wore what gown, or who's getting in on with who, and give the community a few reminders of earthquake preparedness???

[Sonia H. Vivar]

Geez.....Now what, the city fails to maintain and monitor, these pipes, and I bet now they'll ask us to flip the bill and bathe once a month, since cutting back and flushing less isn't enough.

svivar9087