Pipeline breaks normal, city says

Tarpon Springs has issued emergency notices to boil drinking water three times in the past five months after three water line breaks.

By CANDACE RONDEAUX, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 11, 2003

TARPON SPRINGS -- A car barrels into a fire hydrant on Dixie Highway, leaving some city residents without drinkable water for days.

Dozens more residents in the Westwinds subdivision boil their water after a valve seal bursts as city workers try to repair it.

And hundreds more on Bayshore Drive drink bottled water after another water line cracks.

Despite recent improvements to the city's water supply system, boiling drinking water has become a temporary way of life for some Tarpon Springs residents. The city has issued emergency notices three times in the past five months warning people of a contamination threat after three water line breaks.

City officials say the string of breaks is just coincidence and is normal for a water supply system as old and extensive as the one in Tarpon Springs.

"It's an ongoing problem in an area where you've got older lines," City Manager Ellen Posivach said.

Posivach said the city has stepped up efforts to keep residents informed when there's a problem in their area. Any time a pipe breaks, pressure drops. That means contaminants can be sucked into the water supply. The city notifies residents of a contamination threat in their area within hours of a break as a precautionary measure.

"It's not saying that there's something bad in your system," city Public Services Administrator Paul Smith said. "It's saying that please take these precautions when something like this happens."

The city also is required to submit water samples to the Pinellas County Health Department for analysis each time a water line break occurs. It typically takes the county's laboratory 24 hours to determine whether water in an affected area is safe to drink, health department officials said.

In all but one case, samples taken after the city's most recent water line breaks tested clean. An initial sample taken after the break in early January at Alt. U.S. 19 and Dixie Highway did test positive for contaminants, but further samples showed water in the area was safe, said Mike Flanery, director of environmental engineering for the county's health department.

Flanery agreed that the number of water line breaks in Tarpon Springs is not unusual. He said the most recent boil water notices demonstrate that the city has become increasingly vigilant about taking safety precautions when an incident occurs.

"They do have an older water system up there, so they have more problems to report," Flanery said. "They're actually doing a better job of reporting" the incidents than they once did.

On average, most pipes can withstand up to 50 years of wear before they need to be replaced. About one-fifth of the city's 150 miles of water-supply lines are more than 30 years old, Smith said. But there are still a few parts of the city's water system which date as far back as 100 years, according to city and county officials.

Each year the city earmarks $100,000 to replace old or damaged pipes. But city and county officials agree that more money is needed to overhaul the system and prevent future problems.

"To keep these things from happening they need to spend a little more money on their infrastructure," Flanery said. "You just can't keep patching forever and ever. It takes a lot of money to fix these things."

-- Candace Rondeaux can be reached at (727) 445-4182 or rondeaux@sptimes.com.

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