Connecticut Water to Spend $17 Million Replacing Aging Pipes
Connecticut Water today announced it plans to spend an additional $17.4 million in 2018 to continue enhancing water system reliability by replacing aging pipes.
“Connecticut Water is at the forefront of investing in replacing aging water mains,” Craig C. Patla, Connecticut Water’s vice president of service delivery, said. “The company has replaced more than 118 miles of water main at a cost of more than $139 million since 2008. We understand that families and communities depend on our water systems now and will continue to rely on them for safe drinking water, public health and public safety in the future.”
The pipe has been replaced through the Water Infrastructure and Conservation Adjustment (WICA) program. Through WICA, Connecticut Water has replaced approximately 7.5 percent of its distribution system. The company has a goal to achieve a 100-year replacement cycle for water mains.
Patla also noted that since Christmas Day, Connecticut Water crews have responded to more than 30 water main breaks in its 1,600 miles of water main across Connecticut.
“Undoubtedly there would have been many more breaks if it had not been for pipe already replaced under WICA,” Patla said. “We prioritized pipe replacement on a number of factors including its age and history of prior breaks. Older cast-iron pipe is more brittle than current materials and is more susceptible to breaking due to shifting ground caused by the kind of extreme temperature changes we have seen recently.”
In addition to improving reliability and water quality, replacing old pipe reduces lost water from leaks and breaks, reduces the environmental impact of pumping and treating that lost water, and can improve the amount of water available to fire hydrants on the system.
The WICA water main replacement work also creates local construction-related jobs in the company’s service areas.
“An analysis done by the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development estimates that our investment of more than $17 million in the 2017 WICA program supported 177 jobs in Connecticut,” Patla said. “The costs of these projects are covered through modest surcharges on customers’ bills that allow the company to replace aging pipe on a programmatic basis and begin to recover the cost as the new infrastructure is placed in service to serve customers.”
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