Over just a few days, multiple water main breaks in Los Angeles have flooded streets, interrupted service, and carved a huge sinkhole into Sunset Boulevard.
The episodes have renewed focus on the city's aging underground water infrastructure.
What happened?
According to NCB Los Angeles, in the span of several days, Los Angeles experienced three separate water main failures, fueling concern about whether more infrastructure breakdowns could follow.
The biggest rupture came Thursday in West Hollywood, where a 36-inch trunk line failed and left a large sinkhole on Sunset Boulevard.
NBC Los Angeles reported the West Hollywood pipe was about 110 years old and spilled roughly 17 million gallons onto nearby streets and properties. Crews remained on repairs afterward, and the break caused major disruption in the area.
The other two incidents involved 8-inch water mains. In Studio City, one sent water across a street and temporarily cut service to about 60 customers. In Hollywood, another break interrupted water for roughly 70 customers while crews worked on repairs.
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Los Angeles City Councilmember Nithya Raman linked the failure to the system's age, telling NBC Los Angeles, "this is a 110-year-old pipe that we have not been able to update and infrastructure is badly needed."
Why does it matter?
These failures amount to more than a short-lived inconvenience. They can harm homes and businesses, force road closures, disrupt commuting, and leave residents without running water for hours or longer. If a major trunk line breaks, the fallout can reach well beyond a single block.
A large portion of Los Angeles' water system is at — or already beyond — the stage where costly maintenance and replacement cannot be avoided. LADWP figures cited by NBC Los Angeles show that about 30% of the city's water main lines are more than 80 years old.
For a city trying to keep essential services operating without repeated interruptions, that is a difficult problem.
NBC Los Angeles also cited Joseph Reichenberger, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Loyola Marymount University, who said older water lines are difficult to inspect because they are buried underground.
"In order to even inspect it, you'd have to dig it up and then you're only going to see the outside," Reichenberger told the outlet. "But to look at the inside, you need to put a TV camera down or something else. You can't do that with a water line that's flowing full."
What's being done?
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says it is already moving ahead with upgrades through an $8 billion, five-year Water System Capital Plan that NBC Los Angeles described as an effort to modernize the city's water system.
Under the plan, 240,000 feet of main-line pipe and 6,047 feet of trunk line are set to be replaced.
City officials are also pointing to the recent breaks as a sign that improvements need to happen more quickly. Mayor Karen Bass said the failures reflect broader citywide issues connected to aging infrastructure.
"This is one of the challenges when our infrastructure is so old. It's my understanding that these pipes are over a hundred years old," Bass said, as reported by NBC Los Angeles.
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