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Official: DWP May Take Up To 48 Hours To Respond To Smaller Water Main Breaks

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Despite extreme drought conditions in Southern California and water restriction policies in place statewide, it can still take up to two days for crews with the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) to fix some water main breaks, officials said Thursday.

The number of reported water main breaks appears to have jumped in recent months, with perhaps the most dramatic incident occurring in July at the UCLA campus in Westwood in a flooding event that saw an estimated 36,000 of gallons per minute.

Martin Adams, director of water operations at the DWP told KNX 1070's Dick Helton that while LA averages about 3 leaks per day, that number is still roughly half of the national average.

DWP's Martin Adams

For smaller leaks that don't pose an immediate public threat, Adams said often it can take some time before crews can respond.

"In some cases where there's a leak...and it's not doing damage and no one's out of water, we actually have a process that we go through with about three to five other agencies that have to mark the utility called the USA Dig Alert to make sure that we don't hit a gas main or a power line or something like that," said Adams.

In the event of a bigger leak that causes street damage or leaves customers without water service, the DWP considers those emergency leaks and can respond immediately, he added.

Smaller service leaks, however, fall under a 48-hour provision to ensure that work is done safely without any disruption to other utilities, according to Adams.

But at a time that the Metropolitan Water District - which supplies drinking water for half of California - has run through two-thirds of its total supply and consumers are being asked to conserve their water usage, Adams conceded the DWP could strive to do better.

"We still need to respect the utilities' work and their ability to get there, but at the same time, we are definitely concerned about shutting off leaks as fast as possible," he said.

The utility has added more personnel out in the field to respond more quickly to reported leaks - especially during off-hours - as well as giving people adequate notification of leaks that don't directly affect customer service, according to Adams.

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