700 water main breaks in Houston...maybe crumbling infrastructure needs attention?

[rfranklin]

700 water main breaks in Houston — a day

City imposes water rationing; heat, high use put pressure on pipes across central US

It's not just hot and dry in Houston, the city's also losing water at an alarming rate due to water main breaks — 700 a day, the mayor said Tuesday.

Other cities across the central U.S. — which has had the worst of this summer's heat — are also seeing more breaks than usual as older pipes feel the strain from both sides: increased water use builds pressure from inside pipes, while dry soil shrinks away, leaving space on the outside of pipes for the inside pressure to burst through.
-more-
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/44160515/ns/weather/

I guess prayer doesn't work so well.

[ixion]

1. Of course, this is what happens when you don't maintain infrastructure

just sayin'....

[luckyleftyme2]

10. your absolutely right

out of sight out of mind!It is not just houston who is neglecting the infrastructure its the whole country. Once the electorate realize their taxes are the only game in town they will be able to stop the draining of our wealth out of the country!
We can cure a lot of the job loss by putting the money into rebuilding our infrastructure and keeping the money in america to create small businesses which will thrive around these projects.
But big business wants to create a service market where they simply act as a middleman creating few jobs and wreaking our economy!

[florida_lurker]

2. That's a drought/heat story

more so than a crumbling infrastructure story.

I grew up just north of there and we'd always have more trouble with anything that was underground when the weather fluctuated strongly from wet to dry and vice versa. This year's drought is horrendous and the cracks in the soil are rather extreme.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. I am glad you pointed that out.

Welcome to DU..

[a la izquierda]

18. Yep...clay soil gets rocked when...

it doesn't rain regularly. We had the same problem is Oklahoma.

[TexasProgresive]

19. There may well be a need for maintanence but brand new pipes

will break when clay soils dry and shrink away. Thank you florida_lurker and welcome.

[BirminghamExaminer]

3. Nah, just let Perry declare a pray the broken pipes away day in Texas. n/t

[Bluebear]

5. +

[progressoid]

24. Yep - Jesus will fix it.

[liberal N proud]

4. Public water supply is socialist

Unless you are in one of those places where the municipality has sold the infrastructure that the tax payer built.

But the teabaggers are not going to allow publicly owned infrastructure to be repaired.

[sammytko]

6. We are in the same situation - broken wells from over use and age

We did not have water for two days. I contacted Perry, Obama and Chris Matthews - he loves his infrastructure rebuilding. There are so many towns suffering. Praying won't get you far without doing.

[indurancevile]

7. maybe if people have to go without water they'll get a clue. let them pool their resources

& fix their own pipes privately & see how they like it.

let them see how they like living in a city with sewage in the streets too -- as some neighborhoods obviously won't be able to foot the bill thanks to all those great perry-jobs.

[AnneD]

8. The city DOES work hard to maintain infrastructure ......

But I have live here for most of my 57 years and it has never been this dry. People are watering the ground not for their yards but to prevent their house foundations from cracking. When it does't rain in Texas, we have gotten something here, in but not this year. We are a sub tropical environment with many bayous, so clear drainage is a priority. The bayous are little trickles these days. My friend has not been able to kyack this entire summer.

By the way, we are a blue area in a red state, so thank you for all your support and friendship. :sarcasm:

[LuvNewcastle]

11. We were in a similar situation here

on the MS coast until we got all that rain in July. Now we're entering the height of hurricane season, so we should all get some rain soon. I don't want y'all to get a major storm, of course, but I hope you get the rain you need.

[AnneD]

13. We got a sprinkle in early July...

But nothing since and days on end of over 100 degrees with little relief in sight. Burn bans all over the state and farmers mowing their fields so close to the ground to deny fuel to the fire......it is just bad.

[Aerows]

27. Hey LOL

I just said that in my post - I'm on the MS gulf coast, too. June was hell here.

[Aerows]

26. I lived in Houston for a while

I can't imagine it being dry. It seemed like when the sky opened up there, it was like an entire lake fell - and I grew up in New Orleans, so I KNOW about rain.

You certainly have my support and friendship, fellow Southerner. I'm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, so I know all about being a liberal in a red state.

In any case, I hope you guys get some rain soon. Winter in the South is dry, and if summer has been dry, it's not going to get much better :(. It's been hot as hell here on the coast, too - it hit 106 a few days in June, and it was dry as a bone until the end of July. Finally, we've cooled off and gotten some rain.

[AnneD]

43. Thanks..

:grouphug:

[kentauros]

46. Thank you for sharing your personal account and perspective, too!

:hi:

There is one good thing to come out of this drought, hard as it may be for anyone to imagine, but I think many will agree this is good, at least for humans: no mosquitoes!

The flying roaches are still around; they're survivors. But those mosquitoes require standing water. I just read today that's it's going to take 15" of rain to break the drought for Texas. Fifteen inches! If a tropical storm or depression stalled on top of us (like say, TS Allison in 2001) we could get all of that at once. It would flood, but perhaps that would help to re-saturate the ground. I don't know how long it takes clay to re-saturate, but it's a lot longer than topsoil ;)

[w8liftinglady]

32. right there with you!

We are seeing a world of hurt in many parts of Texas. My partner's lake is drying up.My sister lives in Midland. They have had non-stop grassfires there for months...all the wildlife is dying.
My friends who are environmentalists are beside themselves, because many plants that should be flowering are dead.
Many crops are DEAD.
Livestock and horses are dying of hunger and thirst.
People are dying of heat exposure.
The city of kemp lost their water supply last week for the same reason.
The entire CITY had no water for several day.
That is 5 miles north of my partner's home.

It ain't funny...and it's not going to improve any time soon.
Solidarity, neighbor!

[AnneD]

42. Brother is up in Bridgeport.....

His terraced pond of 8 years is back to the original pond but now 1/4th full. Wild life is coming up to the house as this is the only water for miles around. The stunted crops break your heart, if the cattle at the auction barn don't. Cows are skin and bone and they include the calf with the mother because they can't feed them. Brother has a small operation and has been on the look out for quality calves. He got a pregnant cow last week.

People have voluntarily cut back for some time, watering just enough to keep things alive. People are using grey water routinely. Brother's pear trees have one, ONE piece of fruit on 3 of the 8. He calls them his miracle fruit.

You just cannot imagine how bad it is.

[w8liftinglady]

44. My partner and I met some ranchers in OK

They have had to sell their cattle early....it's hard for a small business owner to take that kind of price cut.
The crops here are nothing (We tend to grow cotton and cattle corn here).
People are staying home from work because no one can afford to contract.
The lower middle-class in Tx is suffering- big time.

[AnneD]

45. Brother is into...

Self suffeciency. And thank goodness. We are pooling family resources to help out. When beef prices hit the roof next year, we will be enjoying our investments. In addition to the pond, he had the fore site to plant drought resistant costal hay in addition to wild oats and clover. One good rain and everything greens up. The bees are doing well and the chickens are loving the grasshopper all around and getting fat and sassy.

We are hoping to get a wild boar in the fall for our pork. For the well prepared and flexible, things are difficult but you can survive.

[no_hypocrisy]

9. Let Perry fix it with tax dollars from Texas alone.

Oh, not enough?

[steve2470]

12. Damn guvmint always wants my money ! Damn socialists !

:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[Xipe Totec]

14. Land subsidence is a major problem in the Greatrer Houston Area

And a big contributor to this problem, not the lack of maintenance. Sorry.

http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/09/28/Geologist-Parts-of-Houston-are-sinking/UPI-50181285721438/

[kentauros]

23. That's right.

It's too bad people don't even read their own posted stories, or better yet, understand them, or they wouldn't be making asinine statements about Parry's praying.

Key phrase here: "while dry soil shrinks away"

I know most of y'all know we're going through one of the worst droughts in our known history, but do y'all ever stop to consider what the overall effect is? What happens when you leave something in the oven too long? It doesn't just bake and brown on the outside, it dries up on the inside! No underground infrastructure was designed for something like this and it's a wonder the number of breaks is only 700.

Now, the other thing I was thinking about recently is the storm sewer system. The surface-gathering pipes are relatively close to the surface, just like the water-distribution system. If it's cracking and breaking up, too, then the next tropical depression that makes it past the beaches is going to leave us flooded in a bad way, worse than what we get from a hard downpour. I hope the city is paying attention to that as well...

[WhiteTara]

16. Rick Perry will just pray those pipes to be healed

HEAL PIPES HEAL!!!

There, that should do it!

[TexasProgresive]

20. I'm surprised he isn't blaming it on Houston electing a

Lesbian mayor.

[WhiteTara]

22. Of course! God is mad at Houston

for having elected a competent mayor who happens to be gay. Go figure.

[Kennah]

17. Dadgum socialist public water. Let Bechtel handle it.

:sarcasm:

[valerief]

21. Yeah. Maybe Texans should flush Faitherism. nt

[sinkingfeeling]

25. What in the 'we're so great, let's make all of America look like us' state?

[kentauros]

28. I take it y'all in Arkansas have never been through a severe drought.

Or you don't have soil that consists of clay, silt and sand. If you do, then you know what we're going through down here. If not, then maybe a little research is in order? Houston Geology

http://www.drought.gov/portal/server.pt/community/drought_gov
http://www.twdb.state.tx.us/mapping/maps.asp

[Javaman]

29. this is a prime example of the libertarian utopia. nt

[jberryhill]

30. I'm sure bottled water is available from the non-socialists.

[ensho]

31. kick

nt

[n2doc]

33. Just raise taxes on the poor

Call it a 'water main fee" stick it on food and other necessities, and you have the republican 'solution'

[kentauros]

39. Unfortunately for your Texas-hate-fest,

Houston is responsible for their funding of the water system and is a Democratic-governed city. Maybe you missed our historic mayor's election last time where we elected the nation's first lesbian mayor, Annise Parker?

[n2doc]

40. Doesn't seem to be doing much for your infrastructure, though.

Perhaps you like to elect cheerleaders?

[kentauros]

41. Have you read ANYthing on this thread,

other than that of the Texas-hate cheerleaders?!

It has nothing to do with republicans or "crumbling infrastructure." For someone that seems so well-informed in the sciences (from the plethora of posts you make to the Science forum and others) you don't seem to be reading the facts we've been presenting on this and other threads. It's the drought, dammit! It's not because Houston lacks basic upkeep of their underground infrastructure. If you lived here, you'd notice things like that. They are always on top of any break at any other time of the year. The sheer number of breaks is overwhelming their capability to fix them all quickly and is completely abnormal.

Please! Read some of the sources the rest of us have posted here. Otherwise, you're coming across as just as ignorant as the rest of the haters here.

[MilesColtrane]

34. Unrec for the wildly speculative conclusion in your title

Texas is in the middle of the worst one-year drought ever.

Unless the state gets 4.5 inches of rain by October (unlikely) it will be the worst drought since records have been kept.

http://www.texastribune.org/texas-environmental-news/environmental-problems-and-policies/state-climatologist-drought-officially-worst-recor/

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture declared the entire state a disaster area back in June.

These water main breaks have everything to do with drought conditions and nothing to do with poor infrastructure.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

35. New lines are breaking as often as the old ones here. The ground is shrinking from no rain.

Which causes shifts in the soil, which in turn breaks the pipes. It's happening on residential levels as well as municipal levels through out the state.

If you want to bash Perry about something he deserves, bash his lack of interest in addressing the hardships the drought have placed on the state.

[Historic NY]

36. Hey Texas get much for the Federal stimulus money All Hat II took?..

[kentauros]

37. Man, the reading comprehension sure is bad on this thread!

Either that, or many of y'all are being willfully ignorant just to get a good Texas Hate-On going :eyes:

Here's the pertinent information from the quoted portion of the OP's story:

Other cities across the central U.S. — which has had the worst of this summer's heat — are also seeing more breaks than usual as older pipes feel the strain from both sides: increased water use builds pressure from inside pipes, while dry soil shrinks away, leaving space on the outside of pipes for the inside pressure to burst through.

(edit for spelling and line-spacing)

[DCKit]

38. No worries. It's just Rick Perry's jobs program in action. nt

[and-justice-for-all]

47. Just imagine what all those troops over seas could do...

if they were here, instead of over there. National works programs for the unemployed and all redeployed troops.

[sarcasmo]

48. This country is so back-wards, we will blow up a country and rebuild that same

country before we fix our infrastructure.

[Philippine expat]

49. Even new pipes will crack

when exposed to the heat and drought conditions of this year