BCWA pipeline leak jumps to nearly half a million gallons per day

Remote inspection uncovered two leaks Thursday before search was called off

By Ted Hayes
Posted 5/24/19

The Bristol County Water Authority’s 21-year-old East Bay Pipeline is now leaking nearly half a million gallons per day, and a remote inspection along one third of its 4,800-foot length Thursday …

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BCWA pipeline leak jumps to nearly half a million gallons per day

Remote inspection uncovered two leaks Thursday before search was called off

Posted

The Bristol County Water Authority’s 21-year-old East Bay Pipeline is now leaking nearly half a million gallons per day, and a remote inspection along one third of its 4,800-foot length Thursday afternoon found two leaks before the search was called off.

The pipeline had been leaking about 288,000 gallons per day since early April. But during Thursday's inspection by remote sensing equipment threaded into the pipeline, the flow suddenly jumped up about 50 percent, to about 432,000 gallons, BCWA Executive Director Pam Marchand said Friday.

She believes a drogue, or parachute, that pulled the equipment through the pipe by catching the water's current dislodged a weak weld or debris adjacent to one of the leaks, after that drogue was sucked into the small hole by escaping water pressure.

At that point, the parachute-driven equipment was unable to continue, as it kept getting sucked into the hole, she said. In all, two leaks at either end of a 40-foot section of pipe were discovered, about 1,600 feet into the pipeline's length, 160 feet under the Providence River bed. Roughly 3,000 feet of the pipeline remains uninspected and likely will never be, she said.

Though the leak has gone up by 50 percent, Ms. Marchand said the pipeline continues to be used, as it was put back in service to perform the inspection. She said BCWA officials will monitor the flow rate over the weekend, and then decide if the pipeline should then be taken offline again, and an emergency connection to the East Providence connection re-established.

"If anything changes we are going to switch it back" to the emergency East Providence supply, she said. But "if it stays steady, we're going to let it run."

There is currently an outdoor watering ban in place, but if the emergency connection needs to be re-established next week or at any later point, emergency restrictions will be put into effect.

At that point, Bristol County customers caught using water unnecessarily will be warned, and if they continue to violate the ban, will have their water turned off. They would be charged to have it turned back on, she said.

Meanwhile, engineers are considering what kind of material to use to "slip-line" the pipeline from one end to the other, which Ms. Marchand said seems at this point to be the only feasible way to seal the leak.

Early on, officials were considering using PVC sleeving to line the pipe, a job that she estimated would cost approximately $3 million and would cut down on the pipeline's inner diameter by roughly 25 percent. Since then, they have been looking at other lining options, including the use of flexible teflon-based lining, which would be thinner and thus would not reduce the pipeline's capacity as much. However, she said, it remains to be seen whether that option is feasible, and she said the use of that material could add to the repair cost.

As they work to tackle the leak, BCWA officials are working on a plan to build a new pipeline through East Providence to the Pawtucket water supply. That plan, which for years has assumed financial help from East Providence, will go ahead with or without any funding help from that city, or any state money that could be secured.

Ms. Marchand said that if no outside financial help is given, BCWA customers would pay for its $31 to $35 million cost through a bond issue that would see water rates rise 3 to 3.5 percent over the 15 or 20-year life of the bonds.

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