UCLA Flooding Raises Questions about LADWP Pipe Replacement Schedule

LOS ANGELES — A water main break that flooded the University of California-Los Angeles campus in Westwood raises the specter of the need for the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power to ratchet up its capital improvement program.

LADWP responded to the water main break reported Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. in Westwood near the UCLA campus.

"The water main is a 30-inch, 90-year-old riveted steel pipe that delivers water to the area at a high velocity from Upper Stone Canyon Reservoir," according to LADWP Spokesman Joseph Ramallo. "Crews are shutting off three large diameter valves as quickly and safely as they can, taking care to avoid further damage due to pressure in adjacent pipes that could lead to further ruptures if care is not taken."

Crews had succeeded in fully closing the valves by Wednesday afternoon, according to officials. Street closures in the area were still in place Thursday morning awaiting abatement of flooding issues.

Water flow through the pipe when operational is estimated at 75,000 gallons per minute, Ramallo said. LADWP serves approximately 500 million gallons of water to customers each day, he said.

The department has faced criticism in the past for its current water pipe replacement schedule, which would replace the pipes on a 300-year cycle, according to interviews with LADWP's previous general manager, Ron Nichols.

Calls for a response on ratcheting up the replacement schedule in the wake of the recent problems were not returned.

LADWP announced three years ago that it planned to raise rates 5% a year to pay for needed infrastructure improvements and environmental mandates from the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

That rate increase schedule has been slowed while the department got buy-in from ratepayers through public hearings; and also because the department was able to reduce costs slowing increases.

LADWP has been selling bonds at a rate of about a $1 billion a year for the past three years, but the majority of that money has gone for improvements that meet environmental mandates. On the power side, that has meant increasing its use of wind turbines and other more environmentally-friendly methods of producing power to reduce its dependency on coal. If utilities don't hit state and federal targets on the environmental mandates, they can be fined.

While the department has been replacing pipes and making efforts to speed up its overly-long pipe replacement program, the environmental mandates have taken precedence.

As of noon on Wednesday, the valves were approximately 95% closed, he said, but would not turn further, consequently, the rate of water flowing through the pipe and draining into the work area was still too high to begin repairs. LADWP engineers were developing alternate solutions to get the water shut off as quickly as possible, he said.

The trunk line break occurred at the juncture of two water trunk lines that meet in the shape of a Y. The break appeared to have damaged the juncture, the 30-inch steel riveted pipe and possibly the pipe that connects into it, right at the juncture of the two pipes. Sunset Boulevard was not anticipated to re-open until Friday.

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said in a written statement that he was "closely monitoring the situation and remained in constant contact with key city departments including the LADWP, LAFD and LAPD, along with UCLA to make sure we are leading a closely coordinated response."

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