PITTSBURGH — Residents in Brighton Heights have reported experiencing frequent water main breaks for years. They have expressed concern that when they alert the water company, only repairs and replacements of the smaller lines are completed, while no action is taken to address the main line.
When Channel 11 News asked Pittsburgh Water about their plans for replacing the main water line that services the Brighton Heights community, Chief Operating Officer Frank Sidari said, “No.” He explained, “It doesn’t warrant the investment from our ratepayers to replace a large section of that line at this point because of the cost.”
We inquired whether it was normal for a community to experience such a high frequency of water main breaks.
Sidari responded, “There are opportunities where breaks occur throughout our system. Unfortunately, a lot of our infrastructure is over 75 to 100 years old.”
Pittsburgh Water confirmed that the main line along Brighton Road serves around 3,000 customers, customers like Nathan McDermott, a Brighton Heights resident for 20 years.
“When the water main breaks, it pushes mud through the pipes, and many times we have to replace the inside of the toilet,” he shared.
Karis Bowman, owner of California Coffee Bar located in Brighton Heights, mentioned that water service reliability has affected her business. “We had to close last Saturday, one of our top sales days, at 9:30 a.m., which meant we lost a whole weekend of sales,” she said.
Residents have expressed frustration with the last-minute notices about breaks or planned outages, calling them a significant inconvenience. McDermott explained, “Let us know. I know they have robo-calls and robo-texts, but sometimes we receive them, and sometimes we don’t.”
Currently, the water company does not send alerts to customers who are not directly affected by outages, nor do they issue alerts between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m.; however, they indicated they might reevaluate this policy.
Sidari mentioned, “Right now we are in the process of completing a $30 million upgrade to the water systems.” The provider is about 85 percent finished with a project aimed at removing lead from aging pipes and replacing smaller lines that help pump water into the neighborhood. They have also installed water pressure monitors on hydrants to help monitor levels and release water into the road when pressure gets too high.
McDermott emphasized that the smaller projects only serve as messy fixes for a larger issue. “The problem is they are not making repairs; they are making quick fixes. We’d like to see the entire water main replaced.”
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