ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – Water crews worked through the day Tuesday to repair a main break at Pine and Newstead in the Central West End that left residents without water since Monday night, the latest in a series of emergency repairs straining the city’s water division budget.
The St. Louis Water Division reported 399 water main breaks last year, the most in seven years, according to Alderman Michael Browning. The cold weather and aging infrastructure have caused dozens of main breaks in the past week and a half.
Alderman Browning said, “Emergency repairs, like anyone who’s had to handle an emergency repair in their life, it’s actually more expensive than a proactive repair. When we are in a place where everything’s an emergency, really, that ends up being that we’re spending a lot more money in the long run just responding to emergency after emergency. We’d like to get the water division to a place where they have the money available to do routine maintenance and routine replacement of pipes to get their infrastructure up to date, as well as have enough money to really be able to operate and pay for those rising chemical costs, those rising personnel costs.”…