Water Main Replacement Plan

The District owns and maintains over 710 miles of 4” to 12” water mains. Many miles of these water mains were constructed in the 1940’s and 1950’s and have outlived their useful life and are in need of replacement. To aid staff in prioritizing the replacement of existing water mains, a Water Main Replacement Plan was prepared.

The Water Main Replacement Plan sets forth a strategy to replace aging, deteriorating, and undersized water mains throughout the District with an emphasis on the next 15 to 20 years. The Plan is based on a matrix derived from various criteria to define areas in most need of main replacement. The criteria used to develop the matrix included the age of the main, pipeline material, location of the pipe, leak history, and hydraulic factors (including fire hydrant spacing, percentage of hydrants that are wharf type and fire flow capability).

The Water Main Replacement Plan is used as a planning tool during annual capital improvement program (CIP) budget discussions with the Board. The Plan does not represent a financial commitment by the Board, other than those CIP funds already approved and adopted, but only provides a prioritization of main replacements for future planning.