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Mishaps bring aging infrastructure into light
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WASHINGTON (Map, News) - Near simultaneous failures on both sides of the Potomac left tens of thousands in two of the nation’s most affluent counties unable to turn on a light or drink a glass of water this week, underscoring a looming crisis in the region’s overtaxed and aging utilities.
Without billions of dollars and a concerted effort, it’s a circumstance that will only become more common.
A ruptured 4-foot water main in northern Montgomery County on Sunday night forced residents to skip showers and shuttered around 900 restaurants and food vendors, while a storm that tore through Northern Virginia cut power to more than 130,000 homes, stores and offices for 24 hours.
Experts say the problem will only get worse as growth and age put greater strain on water, sewage and power.
“Our region is projected to grow and grow pretty robustly, but we’re not keeping up with the infrastructure,” said David Robertson, executive director of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Aging pipe networks in the oldest areas are seeing the most chronic problems. Leaders of the water utility that serves Montgomery and Prince George’s counties blame a record 2,129 water main breaks in 2007 on aging pipes — 1,300 of 5,500 miles of pipe are more than 50 years old.
Still-developing Loudoun County, by comparison, has only about 25 water main breaks each year among its 1,000 miles of pipe.
Arlington County, which was built out before its neighboring communities, sees about 200 breaks in a system half as extensive as Loudoun’s, according to Dave Hundelt, head of Arlington County’s Water, Sewer and Streets Bureau.
“In general, in our water systems, our storm sewer systems, there is a general need to begin investing more in their rehabilitation and replacement,” Hundelt said. “It has to do with the fact that these systems are nearing the end of their useful lives.”
D.C.’s ancient pipe network, most of which was laid between 1900 and 1950, cracked 501 times in fiscal 2007.
Electricity officials say population growth and the proliferation of energy-sapping technology like plasma televisions are maxing out power grids that serve the Washington area, and that absent increased power lines and grid space, rolling blackouts could hit the region in the next four years.
Outlying areas of Northern Virginia like western Loudoun County will see longer blackouts without new capacity, according to Le-Ha Anderson, spokeswoman for Dominion Virginia Power, which is planning a new 12-mile Pleasant View-Hamilton line to serve the area.
Pepco spokesman Robert Dobkin says the power company wants to build a 235-mile-long voltage line that will run from Northern Virginia to New Jersey and increase their ability to serve customers.
wflook@dcexaminer.com
kmiller@dcexaminer.com
