Will Service Improve?
Citizen complaints regarding the Sewerage and Water Board’s service seem to have
increased in the last few years. Leaks are left unrepaired for inordinately long periods.
Canisters placed by the Board to warn motorists of sinking roadbeds caused by underground
leaks have become neighborhood landmarks.
In the past, the Board repaired sewerage leaks on a complaint by complaint fashion.
Neglect of routine maintenance led to the 1998 Consent Decree that requires the Board to
address the sewerage collection system in a planned procedure. Board contractors will test
with smoke or TV-type equipment in the pipes for breaks and cross connections with
drainage pipes. Upon completion of an area survey, the Board will make repairs. Only in
one of nine identified areas has the whole process of identification and repair been made.
Two more areas are in testing phases.
Water leaks are still being repaired based on complaints and with operating funds. The
Board says that the drought this past summer caused a great deal of subsidence leading to
sagging pipes and subsequent leaks. The water pipes can not be inspected from within as is
being done with the sewerage pipes; that method would risk contamination of the drinking
water.
Complaints about water leaks are not to be discounted. Not only do leaks cause damage
to adjacent property, but also customers end up paying for treating wasted water. Already
half the water treated is not purchased. The Board can not estimate how much of that
unmetered water is a result of leaks, but it appears substantial.
Leaks in drainage pipes are usually the responsibility of the City’s Public Works
Department. As unlikely as it sounds, under state law drainage millage revenue may not be
spent on subsurface drains. The Sewerage and Water Board and the Public Works Department
have agreed that pipes less than 36 inches in diameter will be defined as subsurface
drains and the responsibility of the City. The Board takes responsibility for the canals
and pumping stations. Efforts to ensure more cooperation between the two government
agencies continue. The Board’s capital program earmarks about two million dollars a
year of the new fee income for cooperative work with the Department of Public Works during
street repairs. |
