Los Angeles water main break by the numbers
A torrent of water spewed from a nearly century-old pipe that burst in Los Angeles, shutting down a section of Sunset Boulevard and inundating the campus of UCLA. Here are some of the numbers behind Tuesday’s rupture:
- Some 20 million gallons had spilled from the pipe by Wednesday afternoon and it continued to gush about 1,000 gallons a minute even though crews had reduced the flow. At its peak on Tuesday, the pipe was spewing 38,000 gallons a minute. Officials say it will take at least another 48 hours to complete repairs.
- The water main is a 30-inch riveted steel pipe that delivers water at a high velocity from Upper Stone Canyon Reservoir. It was installed in 1921.
- More than 730 vehicles were in two subterranean garages that flooded, and about half the vehicles were totally submerged, UCLA says.
- The amount of water that spilled is enough to fill more than 1,000 average-sized backyard swimming pools, or more than 400,000 bathtubs.
- It’s enough water to serve more than 100,000 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers in a single day.
- When the pipe is operational, water flow is estimated at 75,000 gallons a minute.
- The Department of Water and Power’s aging, 7,200-mile water system provides approximately 500 million gallons of water to customers each day.
- In 2009, a team of analysts found 90 percent of the department’s ruptures happened in cast-iron pipes that were corroded.
- When Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state drought emergency in January, he asked California residents and businesses to voluntarily reduce their water consumption by 20 percent.
