Mesa Water’s bill to repair August pipe breaks and leaks tops $240,000

A spate of 10 main line breaks and leaks over a roughly 48-hour period in late August added up to $240,728 in repair costs for the Mesa Water District.

The bulk of that bill, $137,865, went to contractors Mesa Water has on call to help with pipeline repair, according to district documents.

An additional $67,843 went toward paving work. The remaining $35,020 was district staff costs.

Mesa Water “has on-call crew members ready to report for duty at a moment’s notice, enabling us to provide a timely response for repairs,” district spokeswoman Noelle Collins wrote in an email Friday.

“We augmented our staff with on-call services during this time to support our emergency engineering and operations activities,” she added.

Collins attributed the rash of breaks and leaks between Aug. 29 and 31 to “an atypical closing of a system valve” that “resulted in a pressure surge that affected older parts in the system.”

Though pressures within Mesa Water’s system fluctuate regularly depending on demand, Collins said the district is “reexamining the valve-closing sequence” to avoid potential similar issues in the future.

The string of service interruptions affected pipes of different materials and sizes.

Issues occurred throughout Costa Mesa, including in the Eastside and Westside neighborhoods and the commercial area near John Wayne Airport.

A broken water main Aug. 29 resulted in flooding near the intersection of Costa Mesa Street and Orange Avenue. The water caused a 6-by-12-foot sinkhole, a police official said at the time.

On Aug. 30, a leak led to flooding in a parking lot on Airport Loop Drive.

The next day, a 4-inch pipe near 943 Evergreen Place sprung a leak twice — once in the early morning and again in the late afternoon.

In an Aug. 30 news release, Mesa Water board President Jim Atkinson said, “The district’s diligent advance planning enabled us to complete the repairs in a timely manner.”

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