HYATTSVILLE, Md. — Winter is bearing down on the region, which makes this prime season for an inconvenient truth — water main breaks increase between November and February.
“We have 1,800 breaks in a typical year, but 1,200 of those breaks happen in that four-month period,” said Washington Suburban Sanitary Commission General Manager and CEO Carla Reid, standing in the utility warehouse yard, surrounded by thousands of replacement pipes and mains.
Reid said as the weather cools down, “the temperature of our source water, in the Potomac River, cools down as well,” adding to the brittleness of aging pipes.
Nearly 40 percent of WSSC water mains in Montgomery and Prince George’s County are more than 50 years old.
Reid said there are two types of water main breaks.
“One is called a circle break, along the circumference of the pipe,” said Reid. “That’s the easiest one to repair, because we can just put a clamp on it.”
The other is when a pipe splits along its length.
“That is a little bit more devastating, because we’re definitely going to be replacing the pipe,” said Reid. “And you’ll typically see a lot of disturbance to the street surface.”
With 200 repair workers, heavy equipment and leak detection technology standing by, Reid said this will be the second winter WSSC has replaced broken pipes with zinc-coated ductile iron pipes.
“Those extend the life of a pipe from 75, up to 100 years,” said Reid. “Any opportunity we have to install the zinc-coated pipe, we’re doing it, and we’ve been doing it since last November.”
While zinc-coated pipes cost more, Reid said they are expected to save money by extending the pipes’ life expectancy and reducing the need for road repairs.
Reid said the utility relies on customers notifying them at the first glimpse of a water problem, through the WSSC mobile app, by phone, or email.
