Los Angeles water main break by the numbers

ASSOCIATED PRESS

11 years ago

Worker Ruben Monter mops up the floor at Pauley Pavillion Wednesday July 30, 2014 in Los Angeles. A ruptured 93-year-old water main on Tuesday left the UCLA campus awash in 8 million gallons of water in the middle of California’s worst drought in decades, stranding people in parking garages and flooding the school’s storied basketball court less than two years after a major renovation. (AP Photo/ Nick Ut)

In this Tuesday, July 29, 2014 photo, water flows into a parking structure at UCLA after a ruptured 93-year-old, 30-inch water main left the Los Angeles campus awash in 8 million gallons of water in the middle of California’s worst drought in decades. The water also flooded the school’s storied basketball court, which underwent a major renovation less than two years ago. (AP Photo/Anuj Dixit)

Water shoots in the air from a broken 30-inch water main under Sunset Boulevard, uphill from UCLA in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The resulting flood inundated several areas of UCLA, including Pauley Pavilion, home of UCLA basketball, a parking structure and several other building. (AP Photo/Mike Meadows)

Carpet has been pulled up and fans dry the floor at the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in the J.D. Morgan Center Wednesday, July 30, 2014, after a ruptured 93-year-old water main left the Los Angeles campus awash in 8 million gallons of water in the middle of California’s worst drought in decades. The water also flooded the school’s storied basketball court less than two years after a major renovation. (AP Photo/Brian Melley)

Vehicles are inundated in several feet of water in a parking structure on the UCLA campus after flooding from a broken 30-inch water main under nearby Sunset Boulevard inundated a large area of the campus in the Westwood section of Los Angeles, Tuesday, July 29, 2014. The 30-inch (75-centimeter) 93-year-old pipe that broke made a raging river of the street and sent millions of gallons (liters) of water across the school’s athletic facilities, including the famed floor of Pauley Pavilion, the neighboring Wooden Center and the Los Angeles Tennis Center, and a pair of parking structures that took the brunt of the damage. (AP Photo/Mike Meadows)

The site of a water main break is shown near UCLA Wednesday July 30, 2014, in Los Angeles. A ruptured 93-year-old water main on Tuesday left the UCLA campus awash in 8 million gallons of water in the middle of California’s worst drought in decades, stranding people in parking garages and flooding the school’s storied basketball court less than two years after a major renovation. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

A Los Angeles firefighter helps a driver whose car became stranded on Sunset Boulevard after a 30-inch water main broke and sent water flooding down Sunset and onto the UCLA campus in the Westwood section of Los Angeles Tuesday, July 29, 2014. (AP Photo/Steve Gentry)

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.