Water main break closes Montpelier street

(WCAX)
Published: Jan. 29, 2019 at 8:34 AM EST
Email This Link
Share on Pinterest
Share on LinkedIn

A water main break in Montpelier Tuesday displaced 650 state workers and closed a school.

Crews started working at 7 a.m. to fix the problem and expected to work well into the night with a snowstorm bearing down.

Such disruptions aren't that uncommon in municipalities across the state. With aging infrastructure and little money for upgrades, the problem persists.

"It's a little bit cold today. It's not that bad," Montpelier Public Works Supervisor Brian Tuttle said.

Tuttle spent most of Tuesday trying to stop a major leak from a broken main.

"They think at the peak of the leak when it was running full blast it was 5,000 gallons a minute," he said.

The break shut down Route 12 and closed U-32 High School and the National Life building, displacing 650 state employees. The entire city is under a boil-water notice to kill any potential contaminants. Hundreds of homes are without water at all, including Michael Konstantin's.

"Well, you know, it's like saying you don't want to breathe on certain days of the week. Water is, they say water and oxygen are the two main-- that and bread. So it's an inconvenience. And all this is an inconvenience, too," Konstantin said.

Public Works Director Tom McArdle says aging infrastructure could be a factor.

"The pipe is an early '70s vintage, so it's pushing almost 50 years old," McArdle said.

That's about middle-aged when it comes to water pipes in Vermont.

"We have water mains in Montpelier that are upward of 100 years old," McArdle said.

Karen Horn with the Vermont League of Cities and Towns says aging infrastructure is a widespread problem

"We're talking huge dollars," she said. "We're talking old infrastructure in New England has some of the oldest water and wastewater infrastructure in the country."

Horn says the problem is beyond the state's capacity to pay for it.

"Not on its own. Not by a long shot," she said.

Vermont needs $2.3 billion in storm and wastewater upgrades. That doesn't even touch drinking water.

"We need another $510 million to address drinking water systems over the next 20 years and that's an EPA estimate," Horn said.

Montpelier, like the rest of Vermont, is working to patch its system for now.

"I don't know if we'd ever know the cause, but we'll get down there and repair it, sure," Tuttle said.

Horn says municipalities can borrow money for upgrades but that requires voter approval which isn't easy to obtain.