The Winter Flood of Water-Main Breaks Can Be Stopped - Water Main Breaks in Jackson and Every Other City Can be Stopped

Water-main breaks can be stopped. Hundreds of thousands of U.S. water mains break every year. Lead and copper poisoning can be stopped. Listeria and E. coli outbreaks can be stopped to keep us from getting sick. Chlorine poisoning of fish can be stopped. Power outages cause water hammers to break water mains to cause each of these problems, and breaks can be stopped, but there is too much profit to be made by letting water mains burst.

Winter has arrived, and once again we start the annual onslaught of water-main breaks. Even though water mains break throughout the year, a large number come year after year during winter. These winter breaks are caused by power outages, and these water-main breaks can be stopped.

The Winter Onslaught of Water-Main Breaks

This winter began with water-main breaks in Jackson, Mississippi, and other cities when temperatures plunged, winds blew, power was lost, and water mains broke. For example, water mains broke in Jackson this week ("Water main breaks causing inconsistent water pressure for some Jackson residents", Click Here). As expected, power losses preceded these breaks ("Thousands of Mississippians experiencing power outages due to extreme cold front", click here).

The same thing happens every winter. The cause is a process known as water hammer, which is caused by pump operations during power outages. Water hammers, in turn, break water mains.

Although power shutdowns may not be preventable, water hammers due to shutdowns are preventable. If we stop the water hammers, the water-main breaks will stop.

Water Hammer - The Cause of Water-Main Breaks

Water hammer breaks water mains. When water flow stops for any reason, pressure waves travel throughout the water system. These pressure waves are multiples of the normal system supply pressure, and typically travel between  ½ and one mile per second.

For example, consider a fictitious city that only has a ten-mile-long water supply. When water flow is lost, water hammers bang through the entire water supply in 10 to 20 seconds. These pressure waves bang on every one of the pipes to crack those pipes. Banging over and over creates fatigue cracks, which take thousands or hundreds of thousands of hammers to finally break pipes.

There are numeorus water-hammer causes in water mains in our drinking-water systems.

• Hammers occur when pumps start and stop during power outages.
• Hammers occur when valves are closed and opened during annual tests of fire systems for high-rise buildings and other customers.
• Hammers occur when fire hydrants are operated.
• Hammers occur when fire trucks are filled, and check valves slam shut on the trucks when they are filled.
• Hammers occur when large water customers open and close valves to their facilities.
• Hammers occur any time water is turned on and off, even when swimming pools are filled.
• Every water hammer does not damage pipes. For example, Figure 3 shows pressures from valve closures in homes. When faucets or ball valves at bath tubs are closed, the hammers are negligible, and have a negligible contribution to water main breaks.

A Water-Hammer History

In 1904, Joukowski published the basic water-hammer theory. He invented the math to explain how high pressures form when water hammers occur. His formulas were very limited, but his work was followed by engineers for more than a century to control water from hammer damages, particularly for dams and power plants.

In the past few decades, computer programs have significantly evolved to visualize many water hammers, and calculate the pressures due to those hammers. In fact, results for one such model are shown in Figure 3, where water-hammer pressures are plotted at one point in a piping system.

Calculation details are available in a peer-reviewed paper ("Our Water Mains Contaminate Us With E. Coli, Lead and Copper - Illness and Death Follow", Click Here). Pressures are shown for different actions. Note for the example in Figure 3 that power outages and fire hydrants have the greatest effects to cause damages. However, valve closures break pipes in other systems.

A History of Incorrect Engineering for Water Hammers

More importantly, there were no previous, accurate correlations between water hammers and pipe failures. Prior to my research, engineers used water-hammer pressures with faulty calculation methods to determine stresses to evaluate whether or not cracks occur. Stresses crack pipes when water hammers bend or expand pipes.

These methods were in error by factors as high as two or four, depending on conditions. By using incorrect stress calculations that provided lower-than-actual stresses, engineers universally, and incorrectly, concluded that water hammers were okay, while these hammers destroyed piping systems.

A New Way to Evaluate Water-Main Breaks and Water Hammers

To fix this engineering malady, I invented and published new theory in 2002, and I coined the term 'Leishear Stress Theory' to describe why pipes and water mains break. Following a series of peer-reviewed conference and journal papers (leishearengineeringll.com), I wrote an engineering book to summarize my research ("Fluid mechanics, water hammer, dynamic stresses, and piping design", Click Here). Experimental data and a lot of calculus proved my theories to explain how water hammer breaks pipes in industrial systems and water mains. Water hammers break pipes.

A few years ago, I applied this new theory to water-main breaks in a series of articles and technical papers. "Water Hammer Causes Water Main Breaks" (Click Here).

Water-Main Breaks, Corrosion, and Water Hammer

Nearly all water main breaks are caused by water hammers. More than 2/3rds of breaks are observed as cracks caused directly by water hammers. Most of the remaining water hammers are corrosion that is caused by cracks from water hammers.

I published this opinion a few years ago, and new research is in publication to further prove this fact ("Water Hammer and Fatigue Corrosion"). I had planned to publish this Op Ed after that publication series is released, but when I saw that people in Jackson and across our country are being supplied nonsense rather than practical solutions, I wrote this article.

Let me show you photos from these upcoming publications. Water hammers cause 'tiger stripes' of corrosion in metal pipes (Figure 4). Nearly 100 photos were taken with a million-dollar electron microscope. A small piece of a six-inch steel pipe is shown in Figure 5, without magnification. The details of fatigue-corrosion cracking are shown in Figure 6. In a ten-foot length of six -inch pipe, there were approximately one million fatigue cracks, which could not be seen without an electron microscope. Since there are approximately 2.1 million miles of water mains in the U.S. alone, the number of microscopic cracks may number in the hundreds of trillions.The number of fatigue cracks in the world-wide water supply is beyond the imagination. These small cracks may be stopped from getting larger if we stop water hammers.

Photos are brand new. These new findings prove without doubt that my claims for years are correct. Water hammers cause nearly all water-main breaks.

Dangers to Our Drinking-Water Supply

Water mains break in every city in the world, and there are 250,000 water-main breaks in the U.S. every year. At a cost of $1.2 million per mile, replacement costs for the U.S. water system are expected to top $1 trillion in the next 25 years. We lose our drinking water periodically due to water hammers, and our entire water system is being destroyed by water hammers.

Also:

• Water hammers damage all pipes, e.g., metal, concrete, or plastic.
• Water hammers cause tiger-stripe corrosion on the outside of pipes in wet soil.
• Water hammers cause blistering of coatings on pipes, which accelerates corrosion.
• Above-ground pipes break due to freezing, of course.
• Water expands significantly when it freezes, and exerts tremendous force to burst pipes, where the burst pipe appearance is referred to as a fish-mouth crack.
• At zero degrees, one inch thick calcium silicate insulation prevents pipes from freezing for 8 hours.

Dangers to Our Health - Disease

Water-main breaks allow Listeria and E. coli into our water supplies. Although we use chemicals like chlorine to protect us, disease infiltrates cracked pipes and overcomes these chemicals during power outages ("Our Water Mains Contaminate Us With E. coli, Lead and Copper - Illness and Death Follow", Click Here). 'E. coli infects more than 73,000 people and kills more than 60 people every year in the U.S.' An estimated 1,600 people get listeriosis each year, and about 260 die (https://www.cdc.gov/listeria/index.html). We are diseased by water hammers.

Parallel to my research, other research noted connections between water-main breaks and public health ("Water Main Breaks and Public Health Risks", Click Here). My research nailed down the exact cause of those water-main-break infections. We are infected by water hammers.

Laws require that mains are spiked with chlorine when water main repairs are performed. However, these spikes do not affect the infections that enter the pipes at locations away from the repair site. Boil-water notices can be effective when people receive these notices, but boil water notices are not always provided during power outages, and are not always received by everyone after water main repairs. Also, mains are not spiked after all power and pressure losses in water mains. Again, we are infected by water hammers.

Dangers to Our Health - Poisoning

Also, water hammers cause lead and copper poisoning. In our older cities lead and copper were used for water pipes. Since pipes were installed, health hazards for lead and copper poisoning over long periods of time have been established. Efforts are in process to replace contaminating water lines, but pipe replacements will take years.

For years, the U.S government would only pay the cities and contractors to replace lead and copper pipes. Homeowners were responsible to replace pipes in their homes. However, these city replacements caused higher lead and copper levels in homes. The fact is that when cities replaced only part of the piping that supplied homes, water hammers accelerated lead and copper poisoning. We are poisoned by water hammers.

Dangers to Our Environment

Water-main breaks dump chlorinated water into our streams and rivers to form pollutants, which poison fish and affect wildlife. Regulations are in place to stop many sources of chlorine contamination that kill fish, such as water from fire hydrants. However, there are no actions in progress to stop water-main breaks and fish kills due to chlorine contamination from these breaks. The U.S Environmental Protection Agency chose inaction when informed of this environmental danger. Water hammers damage our environment.

Technology is Being Discarded by Engineers, Corporations, and Politicians

The technology to stop water main breaks is here. We know what to do, even though research continues.

For the past several years, I wrote letters to nearly every city that appeared on the internet for their water-main breaks, including Jackson. Emails went unanswered. Why?

Stopping Water-Main Breaks Hinders Profits

When I started this work years ago, I thought that the obstacle to saving lives, property, and the environment was the fact that people just do not like new ideas. While we do not like change, I have stood eye to eye with many people, and discussed concerns through email and the Press.

I have learned that money is the issue.

• Chemical companies earn fortunes selling disinfectants and rust inhibitors that only partially solve the water hammer problem.
• Yes, we drink corrosion inhibitors, even though they have been declared safe.
• Piping manufacturers make fortunes selling pipes, which will not be needed so often if we stop water-main breaks.
• Cathodic-protection companies make fortunes selling equipment that overcomes water hammer corrosion.
• Cathodic-protection equipment runs a small electric current through the soil to arrest corrosion on the outside of pipes.
• Cathodic protection does not stop any corrosion inside pipes.
• Cathodic protection does not stop water hammer damages that crack pipes regardless of corrosion, where cracks develop at slower rates in the absence of corrosion.
• Engineers make fortunes selling incorrect services to cities and corporations, where they claim that the original manufacturers performed poor quality work or that pipes are old.
• Nonsense, water hammers break pipes.
• There is no such thing as 'oldness' to cause piping failures.
• Engineers childishly pick something to blame that is difficult to disprove. I have heard the claim that, if I cannot prove them wrong than they are correct. My research proves such engineers wrong.
• Engineers make fortunes falsely claiming that water-main breaks are caused by corrosion rather than water hammers.
• Engineers make fortunes by claiming that cold weather breaks underground water mains.
• Nonsense - water mains are installed below the frost line to prevent freezing ("Running water scarce in Jackson, Mississippi after frigid weather, click here). I stated in a tweet to Reuters that 'Freezes do not break water mains, water hammers break pipes. The frost line is 5 - 6 inches in Jackson. People claim that water freezes water mains above freezing [temperatures]. Nonsense.'
• As an example, Houston, Texas, staff claimed that cold weather broke underground water mains, where the Houston frost line is less than five inches ("Frost line penetration map in the U.S.", .hammerpedia.com/frost-line-map). A pipe that is warmer than the freezing temperature of water cannot possibly freeze.

Cities Save Money by Letting Our Water Mains Break

City planners and managers prefer to let water mains break rather than invest money to prevent breaks.

• As an example, 'Apparently the $16 million budget that Aiken received to fix the water system did not work as planned. Water-main breaks occur over and over, again and again' ("City work to stop water main breaks", 2018, click here).
• Within minutes of submitting this Op Ed for review, I received a Code Red Emergency phone call from Aiken City. Our water mains were broken. I checked the internet, and sure enough - power outages struck the area before the water main breaks ("High winds blow down trees, knock out power across CSRA", Click Here). I called the Aiken Electric Cooperative that serves the City of Aiken, and I was informed that 'high winds and cold weather caused many power outages.' Cold weather causes winds but does not cause power outages (8 Common causes of outages, rgized.edison.com/stories/8-common-causes-of-outages).
• Case closed - Power outages cause water hammers to cause water-main breaks.
• Water-main breaks can be stopped.

How to Stop Water-Main Breaks--Stop Water Hammers of Course

My voluntary research in 2023 will refine recommendations to stop water hammer damages, but until that time some 'ballpark' recommendations follow. Approximate recommendations are better than no recommendations at all. Of course, implementation of recommendations are the responsibility of the user, since I am not asking for lawsuits to help other people.

• Slowly close valves and hydrants.
• 10- to 20-second closure times are adequate in many cases.
• 3 to 4 minutes are required for areas that have hills or buildings over one or two floors high.
• Install variable frequency drives on pump motors to control water hammers.
• 3- to 4-minute shutdowns and startups are recommended.
• Install flywheels on pump motors to ensure that pumps coast down to a stop to prevent water hammers.
• Install surge tanks on water supply pump-discharge pipes to stop water hammers.
• Also as suggested by Kelly A. Reynolds, 'main breaks occur with regular and yet often unpredictable frequency, supporting the need for a final water treatment barrier at the point of use' ("Water Main Breaks and Public Health Risks", Click Here).

Water main breaks can be stopped!

Addendum

As of 12/30/2022, the Mayor of Aiken in my home town did not respond to correspondence requesting that we discuss the Aiken water hammer health Hazard. He has accepted dangers to health, economics, and lives in Aiken. These dangers to our lives and our health are present in every municipal water supply in our country and abroad.

(Article changed on Dec 30, 2022 at 6:38 PM EST)