Utility crews dedicate weekends to water break prevention

Published on August 06, 2024

Water leaks and breaks can be damaging and costly. After an increase in water system failures in Los Alamos County during the past couple of winters and springs, the Los Alamos Department of Public Utilities (DPU) is taking a proactive approach to preventing more.

After tackling a series of water breaks in Quemazon in April, DPU staff determined that the water distribution system failures there were caused by corroding water system hardware, such as fasteners and bolts, on a specific series of underground valves. While the valves are still relatively new, corrosive winter-season storm water percolating through porous backfill material above and around water lines still caused enough corrosion to snap the hardware holding the valves together. Compounding the problem, the force of water returning to the pipeline once the valves were repaired proved to be enough to cause hardware on the next valve on the pipeline to break, causing a cascading string of breaks in the area.

“This problem has been costly, and will increasingly be so if not addressed,” said Clay Moseley, DPU’s Deputy Utility Manager of Gas, Water & Sewer Operations. “It has already resulted in costly emergency repairs due to damaged water and road infrastructure. To avoid further failure events, we had to come up with an emergency action plan to get the failing hardware replaced.” 

Following the Quemazon breaks, the DPU’s Gas, Water, and Sewer operations division (GWS) scrambled to execute emergency procurements from various suppliers, Moseley said. They sourced special, high-tensile strength, corrosion resistant stainless-steel hardware for the valves. (During hardware replacements, GWS crews have also been coating the valves themselves with a layer of thick urethane for even more corrosion resistance.) Because this hardware is not readily available, orders were placed through several different vendors and the parts are arriving little by little.

DPU’s goal for the Quemazon subdivision is to replace the hardware on all 50 of the valves as soon as possible and ahead of winter. DPU staff reviewed infrastructure records to pinpoint any other areas where the same series of valves was installed and found some in North Community. After an assessment of their condition, those valves are included in DPU’s emergency plan for hardware replacements and will be targeted as soon as the Quemazon replacements are complete.

Over the summer, GWS crews completed the work on more than 30 valves in Quemazon. Moseley explained that as soon as GWS receives a batch of the new hardware, they schedule the valve upgrade work right away to lower the chance of more failures.

“In many cases, the valves that the GWS crews have exposed throughout the project are very close to failing, which is a serious concern,” Moseley said. “With time being of the essence, GWS crews are working on the situation every weekend, both Saturday and Sunday.”

During the regular work week, crews are not able to complete many of the upgrades, if any at all, due to a large volume of operations and maintenance work on the natural gas, water and sewer systems. 

“It is difficult to put enough resources on this very specific type of job without taking away from other workflows,” Moseley said. “GWS has been able to complete more of them on weekends with crews coming in to put 100% focus on this work.”

While DPU maintains operations 24/7 with standby crews, the standby crews cannot work on the replacements because they must respond to other weekend trouble calls. The valve work requires that once a crew starts the work, they cannot stop to respond to other problems. 

GWS crews have been upgrading the valves with replacement hardware since the initial round of failures in April. Two-to-four valves have been upgraded every weekend. Due to the placement of the underground infrastructure, some of the work has required traffic controls while other efforts have been in somewhat remote areas. Moseley said the residents of Quemazon have been understanding, especially after experiencing the destruction of roadways caused by the breaks in April as well as the aftermath of road repairs.

Moving forward, he said, DPU will more closely analyze each weekend’s work for potential impacts to nearby residents, who will be notified via door hangers. This step is being implemented because the replacements are now in tighter areas and the work may impact residents more.

“The County is fortunate to have the equipment, support staff and enough experienced pipefitters to perform this work so efficiently,” said Utility Manager Philo Shelton. “There are many impacts and considerations in this kind of critical work. One of the most important considerations for Quemazon is that DPU has not had to procure emergency services from a third-party contractor, which costs several times more than in-house efforts.”

By procuring the materials and performing the work in-house, even at overtime rates, DPU was able to considerably lower the financial impact. DPU will continue replacing valve hardware in Quemazon on weekends until all valves of the specific type have been upgraded there, and then will assess like valves in North Community. Once all critical valves have been addressed, the project will transition into the normal operations and maintenance schedules of GWS.

“At DPU, we understand that this is not a pleasant situation, but hopefully it will avoid something much worse in the winter, and beyond,” Moseley said. “Everyone’s continued patience and understanding is much appreciated.”

Corroded hardware surrounds an underground water valve in the Quemazon subdivision.

Underground water system components appear to be in acceptable condition with the exception of the corroded hardware surrounding the orange valve.

This bolt was attached to a water valve that sprung a leak in the Quemazon subdivision.

Water breaks in the Quemazon subdivision in April 2024 resulted in damaged roadways in the neighborhood.

(PNG, 4MB)

This map shows where valves have been installed that are in the same series as those being replaced in the Quemazon subdivision. Inspections of valves will continue as the condition of each individual valve may vary even though they are all the same type. Please click on the map image above to see a larger version.