New technology can stop death, illness, and the utter destruction of our water main system. Fish kills and health threats from E. coli, Listeria, lead and copper poisoning, and Legionella, can be stopped. Those in power who can implement new technology refuse to act.
The Centers for Disease Control does not respond at all. Numerous state and local governments do not respond. My hometown of Aiken, S.C. chose to keep on breaking water mains ("No Reason for Water Mains to Break", click here). The Environmental Protection Agency claims that they are not responsible, and that the American Water Works Association (AWWA) is the appropriate organization to address this disaster.
The AWWA refuses to act. I accuse the American Works Works Association of forcing health, environmental, and tax risks into our lives through inaction to publish important new water system technology.
Research is Hammered into Place
Figure 1. Peer-reviewed ASME book on the water hammer causes of piping failures, based on my Master's and PhD graduate school research.
(Image by Leishear Engineering, LLC) Details DMCA
I have written my research to stop water main destruction and resultant health hazards into 50+ publications. Preventable water hammers break water mains to wreak havoc through 250,000 U.S. water main breaks per year, fish kills, E. coli, Listeria, and Legionella infections, and lead and copper poisonings. (.leishearengineeringllc.com/publications.html).
In previous OpEds, I accused the CDC, state and local governments, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of inaction and incompetence, where our lives and trillions of tax dollars due to water main breaks are at risk ("The CDC Blames Workers for Food Poisonings to Cover-up Their Incompetence", "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 In Mississippi And Across U.S. Can Be Stopped", click here).
The technical basis for these claims was published in my peer-reviewed journals and my peer-reviewed American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) book ("Our Water Mains Contaminate Us With E. Coli, Lead and Copper - Illness and Death Follow", "Water Hammer Causes Water Main Breaks", click here, and "Fluid Mechanics, Water Hammer, Dynamic Stresses, and Piping Design", 429 pps. click here).
AWWA Limited Support
Before making specific accusations here against the AWWA, I must concede that they have provided some support for new theory. They published my work in their OpFlow Magazine, and allowed me to publish at AWWA conferences ("Stop Costly Water Main Breaks Before They Happen", a.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/opfl.1079, "Water System Operators can Stop Water Main Breaks", click here, and "Water Main Failures, Water Hammer, Corrosion and Fatigue Failures", click here).
However, the OpFlow Magazine article was limited to a single page. More importantly, AWWA conference publications are not available to the internet, and are therefore limited to the twenty, or so, attendees who attended these lectures and conference attendees who received copies of these papers. Even so, I personally published these papers to the internet through academia.edu.
AWWA Refuses to Support New Technology
Herein lies the crux of AWWA censorship. Without so much as a peer review, the AWWA refuses to allow me to publish my work in the AWWA Water Science Journal, which has a wide distribution to members, and permits printing of multiple pages to explain the full scope of this water main break disaster in America and across the world. This AWWA journal stands in the way of new technology.
Oddly enough, the AWWA claims to support new technology on their website (a.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15518833).
The AWWA Water Science Journal publishes the following claims, where AWWA claims are totally inconsistent with AWWA continuing refusals to publish new ideas from my research (https://awwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/hub/journal/25778161/about/scope and click here). An AWWA claim to support innovation does not agree with the facts.Founded in 1914, Journal AWWA serves as a forum for thought and practice leaders in the water industry. We publish in-depth articles on improving the reliability and resilience of potable water systems along with how drinking water affects, and is affected by, local communities and the environment.
Journal AWWA is an authoritative source of information on the innovations, trends, opportunities, and challenges that connect water professionals and the communities they serve.
AWWA Water Science is an interdisciplinary journal that publishes original, refereed (peer-reviewed) research on the science, engineering, and social aspects of water.
AWS publishes research exploring theoretical, experimental, and practical approaches that advance fundamental understanding and application of all aspects of water works and any source water that could conceivably become a potable water supply. The scope of AWS focuses on the physical, chemical, biological, and ecological processes that affect the quantity and quality of potable water. The scope of research published in AWS also includes the application of fundamental science, engineering, and social principles to managerial, policy, and public health issues that affect and are affected by water.
Effective knowledge exchange and constructive communication are vital to maintain stability in the water industry and to encourage progress. Professional discourse helps the water industry identify, understand, and ultimately address pressing issues that affect lives and livelihoods.
As research expands and technology improves, scholarly publications remain an important outlet for this discourse. By publishing their findings broadly enough for a wide range of practitioners to find them, water researchers disseminate vital knowledge that improves public health, protects the environment, strengthens the economy, and enhances our quality of life.
AWWA Censorship
Based on my research, AWWA's claim of support is grossly incorrect, with respect to 'innovations, trends, and opportunities' and 'the application of fundamental science'. The AWWA Journal has repeatedly denied me the opportunity to publish innovative, thoroughly documented, water main break research, which is founded on Sir Isaac Newton's Laws of Motion - which include the Law of Gravity - and experimental research (Figure 1). AWWA action by inaction stifles new ideas through censorship.
Another Scar on Our Future
This Op Ed will be edited and quoted in my forthcoming 2024 book ("Book Publisher Wanted for a New Book, "Industrial Murder for Profit""). Also, pertinent technical publications to date will be updated in a contracted 2024 book with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ("Fluid Transients - The Water Hammer Disaster").
Through this unpaid research, my sole intent is to save lives, property, and the environment, but powerful organizations, such as the AWWA, censor my opinions to stop this lifesaving goal. Lives and the environment are at stake.
AWWA Correspondence
The following email was sent to the Vice President of AWWA, and cc'ed to the Editor of the AWWA Water Science Journal and AWWA Customer Service. A few AWWA members of management decide what new technology the other 50,000 AWWA members are allowed to read.
An Open-Ended AWWA Refusal to Save Our Water Supply'New Technology - Water Main Breaks Can Be Stopped - AWWA Lack of Interest?
A draft of an in-process publication is attached ("AWWA Censorship: Staunch Resistance to New Ideas Destroys our Water System and Risks Our Lives"). I expect that this article will be published between Monday and Wednesday - June 3-5, 2024. When we met in March, and we talked, I believed that you would help move this important work forward. I do not know why the AWWA resists new ideas. Comments to the attached Op Ed are welcome. As stated in this article, 'Through unpaid research, my sole intent is to save lives and property'.'
AWWA representatives did not immediately respond to this Op Ed email. In an earlier email, the Vice President of AWWA offered to consider another conference paper on this topic, where he is the current AWWA Innovation Committee Chair. He made this same offer in person, and I told him then, and I say it again now, 'Conference papers do not have the influence of journal papers, such a publication would not further advance this important technology, and I consider such a stagnant publication to be a step backward to stop water main breaks'.
Today, 6/5/2024, he extended that same conference publication offer again, following these paragraph additions to this Op Ed. I see no value in such a conference paper, while a journal publication is still withheld. In part, my response to this offer follows.
'I strongly believe that preventing AWWA Journal publication of recent technology is a disservice to the engineering community and to the public at large. New ideas may be hard to accept'.
The AWWA publishes articles on how to predict water main failures ("Using Technology to Find Leaks in Hamilton Ontario", a.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/awwa.2172 and "The Value Proposition for Likelihood-of-Failure Modeling", a.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/awwa.1649). However, the AWWA refuses to publish paramount information in their journal on how to stop these failures in the first place.
At an estimated current cost of $60 billion per year, and ever-rising costs, the AWWA refuses to endorse new technology to save our water system from destruction. We, the people of our country, have an opportunity to stop water main breaks, and the AWWA slams the door in our faces for this opportunity.(Article changed on Jun 05, 2024 at 6:54 PM EDT)
