A 7- 10 day storm?

ORANGE COUNTY, Dec. 13  Thousands of Orange County residents were put on alert Monday, to conserve water for 7 - 10 days because of a break in a gigantic water line feeding 14 southern Orange County communities. "Because of Monday's break on Metropolitan Water District's Allen-McColloch Pipeline, we're asking south Orange County residents to curtail landscape irrigation and reduce indoor water usage as much as possible." Karl Seckel Municipal Water District of Orange County Residents of Irvine, Los Alisos, Lake Forest, El Toro, Laguna Woods, Trabuco Canyon, Santiago Canyon, Mission Viejo, Santa Margarita, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Hills and Dana Point were asked to conserve water. Water officials suggested: taking shorter showers; avoid watering lawns and washing cars; and put off washing clothes.

Because of Mondays break on Metropolitan Water Districts Allen-McColloch Pipeline, were asking south Orange County residents to curtail landscape irrigation and reduce indoor water usage as much as possible, said Karl Seckel of the Municipal Water District of Orange County. The broken pipeline near the Foothill Transportation (241) Corridor and Portola Parkway could affect from 500,000 to 700,000 people, particularly residents of Mission Viejo and Rancho Santa Margarita, where a pipeline break Saturday had lowered reservoir storage levels. NBC4 reporter Beverly White has the full story from the scene of the water break. The break was discovered in a strawberry field east of Irvine. The 69-inch reinforced concrete pipeline was buried 25 feet below the surface, but a break of undetermined cause blew pieces of concrete to the surface, according to the MWD and the Municipal Water District of Orange County. No development is in the immediate area, and no one was injured. MWD system operators noticed the break about 9 a.m., and water to the affected area was shut off by about 2 p.m. Meanwhile, a mud flow covered a section of Portola Parkway, where sheriffs deputies had to direct traffic around the mess. The pipeline, named for two Orange County water leaders, was built by the Municipal Water District of Orange County and dedicated in 1981. Twenty-six miles long, it begins at Metropolitans Robert B. Diemer Filtration Plant in Yorba Linda and runs south to the city of El Toro. It was last inspected by Metropolitan prior to the sale. The line has a capacity of 560 cubic feet per second. It was carrying treated water from the Colorado River and Northern California at around 120 cfs Monday morning before MWD system operators near Pasadena noticed the lines flow had increased by about 50 cfs.

-- Not (today@but.thanks), December 14, 1999

Answers

[[[The 69-inch reinforced concrete pipeline was buried 25 feet below the surface, but a break of undetermined cause blew pieces of concrete to the surface, according to the MWD and the Municipal Water District of Orange County.]]]

If I remember right from Chemistry is Highschool, water isn't too explosive. A possible terrorist attack to help Y2K along? It just doesn't add up....

-- -- (--@--.NO), December 14, 1999.

How convenient.

That's right folks, quit watering your lawns so that we can fill up our reservoirs to the brim. We might be needing the extra water next year.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 14, 1999.

@--NO:

I tend to agree with you that water does not explode. Consider if you will the size bomb required to cause chunks of concrete pipe to reach the surface from 25 ft. below. I suppose that floating a time fused bomb down the pipe isn't difficult, but if this type of ordinance is in the possession of domestic or foreign terrorists, we are in for one hell of a ride.

I would love to hear the opinion of those knowledable in the field of explosives who might be on this ng.

Bill in South Carolina

-- Bill Solorzano (notaclue@webtv.net), December 14, 1999.

Just as something else to consider... did a search on "water" on Reuters/UPI.. right under the article above was this one:

Large Orca Pod Spotted (ABC NewsWire) A large pod of killer whales provide a show to people on two charter boats off the coast of Orange County. According to the "Orange County Register", there were 60 to 70 killer whales in the pod, one of the largest to venture near Orange County this decade. A whale expert says the creatures may be part of an enormous migrating pod that's been seen as far north as Alaska and as far south as Orange County. The skipper of one of the boats says he spotted the whales yesterday afternoon. He says they surrounded the boats in a loose circle and provided a great show by breaching and holding their tales out of the water. - Dec 13 5:46 PM EST

=========

Remember last week the big Jellyfish Blackout in the Phillippines... hours before a big earthquake? What if the water pipe break is due to shifts in the soil... and the orca pod could be offcourse due to changes in geomagnetic forces... possible precursors of a quake? Some interesting posts on the earthquake boards... people feeling waves of mini quakes in the Orange Co. area. Just a thought... a possible heads up.

-- Linda (lwmb@psln.com), December 14, 1999.

A pipe that size, with a head of oh, what, 2 or 3 thousand feet would have a surprising amount of pressure on it. All you need is for the ongoing rust to finally weaken the pipe to failure strength and the pipe quite literally explodes.

chuck

2000 feet gives a pressure of what 70 or 80 atmospheres?? Hard Hat divers wanna weigh in??

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 14, 1999.

And BTW this is why I livce in an area that has water just lying around on the surface.

;-)

C

-- Chuck, a night driver (rienzoo@en.com), December 14, 1999.

Multiple events with a FOF mode makes life interesting.

Much of California is a desert. That part of Orange County has had spectacular growth and has no water reserves around other than the pipeline from Yorba Linda (which doesn't sound like it's going to be fixed any time soon).

Given the spectacular economic and population growth statewide, water is staying even with demand. A year or two of reduced rainfall could be really tough on all of us statewide. Desalinization has not been implemented in any organized fashion.

Bad valves, corroded infrastructure, or a conspiracy, it won't take too many of these kind of problems to create a shortage.

Those of you south of the Tehachapis (Paula, Taz) had better stock up on water while it is still on the shelves!

I'm on the central coast but filled my barrel over the weekend

-- Nancy (wellsnl@hotmail.com), December 14, 1999.

From the Orange County Register...

Major water line to south county breaks

CONSERVATION: Residents and businesses are asked to curtail water use for at least a week.

December 14, 1999

By HEATHER LOURIE
The Orange County Register

http:// www.ocregister.com/community/water014w.shtml

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

Take a shorter shower. Don't water your lawn. Delay washing your car.

South Orange County residents are being urged to conserve water after a 26-mile-long water line broke Monday near the Foothill (241) Toll Road and Portola Parkway. The break could affect 500,000 to 700,000 people.

The areas have at least a three-day water reserve, but the repair could take seven to 10 days, officials said.

Corrosion probably caused the break, the first on this major pipeline, said John Schatz, Rancho Santa Margarita Water District general manager.

"We're simply asking for conservation," said Keith Coolidge, Municipal Water Districts of Orange County associate general manager. "Hopefully they'll never notice the impact."

Water supplies for 14 cities and communities come from the Allen- McColloch Pipeline, which carries water from a Yorba Linda filtration plant to south Orange County cities.

Water officials said the reinforced concrete pipeline, 25 feet below ground, caused minor roadway flooding along Portola Parkway when the 69-inch-diameter pipe burst, blowing concrete to the surface. The break was discovered about noon in a strawberry field, and officials estimate that it happened about 9 a.m.

"It's important we work around the clock to bring (the pipeline) in service as fast as possible," said Bob Muir, a Metropolitan Water District spokesman.

The most affected areas could be Rancho Santa Margarita and Mission Viejo, which receive 100 percent of their water from the broken main.

"It has a particularly significant impact for us," Schatz said.

Schatz said officials in those cities immediately shut off irrigation supplies to development grading projects and large greenbelt areas.

"We do have some other supply sources, but they are not enough to cover normal usage," he said. The average person uses about 120 gallons of water per day.

Officials warned the public Monday about the potential problems.

"That's a bummer," said Walter Powers, 61, of San Clemente, the former owner of a laundry who retired in September. "If it's a necessity, then I think we should do it.

"I guess I can't jump up and down and say I won't do it, because that's the way it is. That's the way the pipe breaks.

"If I still owned my business, I wouldn't be able to curtail anything. Anybody who consumes water for their livelihood would have a tough deal."

The water-line break occurred at a time when the county has received barely 8 inches of rain in the past 18 months, creating high wildfire danger. Much of the wild lands are in the part of south county affected by the break. Most of those communities consume water imported from the Sierra Nevada or Colorado River, and can't easily tap into local groundwater for consumption or to fight wildfires.

There's no rain on the horizon, either. "It's going to be dry as a bone for at least the next five days," said Brad Doyle, a National Weather Service forecaster.

But fire officials aren't overly concerned.

"We'll probably get a better briefing in the morning, but at this point, we don't anticipate any problems," said Capt. Paul Hunter of the Orange County Fire Department. "They haven't notified us that we'll be severely affected."

Hunter said that if people lower their water usage, the fire department will have enough to meet demand should it need to fight a blaze.

Hunter describes the water services as a large web of pipeline much like electrical service. "They can divert from other sources and channel water into other pipelines that would supply our needs."

Register staff writers Gary Robbins and Shawn Price contributed to this report.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), December 14, 1999.

Chuck,

It was a CONCRETE line, no rust involved there. And if you read the article, it says it was operating at well below its capacity.

-- -- (--@--.NO), December 14, 1999.

Consider the timing. I think they went out there and created a little staged flood scenario just so they could make it look like something broke. Good way to discourage people from stockpiling water and in the meantime it allows the reservoirs to fill up a bit in anticipation of a lot of hoarding during the last week of December. They figure if the people are going to take the water anyway, they will ration it from them now so that they can let them have it later when they want it.

-- Hawk (flyin@high.again), December 14, 1999.

Reinforced concrete is commonly reinforced with metal (rebar, rerod). If moisture gets to the rebar it will corrode and as it corrodes it expands and stresses the concrete. This is how chunks get "blown" out of concrete road surfaces. Corrosion of reinforcing materials is a common contributing factor to potholes. That is why some states, such as South Dakota, use very, very, extremely little salt on the roads during the winter. Salt mixes with the water on the surface, percolates down into the concrete through cracks and speeds up the corrosion of the reinforcement.

-- Sam Mcgee (weissacre@gwtc.net), December 14, 1999.

I'm no expert, but it wouldn't take much to bring some chunks to the surface. There was no crater reported, just chunks. The line ruptures, the water vents up cause it can't go anywhere else, creating one or two channels. The concrete that broke is now floating around loose in the middle of an upward flow of fast-moving water, so the concrete ends up on top of the ground, along with the rest of the reported mud flow.

Doesn't require any kind of explosive device or government plot, just old, weak concrete.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), December 14, 1999.

Any of you remember reading about the huge water main break in San Diego a year ago? It created a massive crater (part of it in a major thoroughfare) and disrupted traffic and business for months. Governments around here (San Diego county) haven't spent the necessary funds on infrastructure for the past 20 years, so we get water main breaks of varying sizes at least once a month, some quite spectacular.

-- Mac (sneak@lurk.com), December 14, 1999.

Yes we should be prepared but no we should not be jumping to insane conclusions. This sort of thing happens somewhere every day. It's a big world. Let's not get everyone scared and panicky or that's where problems will arise. Relax, take a deep breath, practice your mantras. Look at your kids, look at your christmas tree, look to the heavens. Peace... =0)

-- Kaye (kaye@home.com), December 15, 1999.

Although I suppose that a severe case of water hammer COULD cause the pipe to "blow" chunks of concrete through twenty-five feet of overburden, but it's a lot more likely that the concrete was FLUSHED to the surface.

By the way, I doubt if a pipe of this size is actually designed to carry 560 cubic feet per second, as this is over twenty feet per second. Typically, pipes are designed to keep water flowing at around six or seven feet per second. To push that much water through that size pipe would require a huge amount of horsepower, which should not normally be necessary unless the pipe is WAY undersized. Maybe it's time to enlarge the pipe.

The design flow for a pipe this size is more like 200 cfs.

ALK

-- Al K. Lloyd (all@ready.now), December 15, 1999.