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Water elevation may have led to Niles waterline breaks
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
The city’s water and sewer superintendent believes there may be another factor besides aging infrastructure behind more than 120 water main breaks in 2016.
The possible culprit: higher water elevation.
“We would like the water to be at 1,096 feet above sea level,” Superintendent Andy Catanzarite told council during a roundtable session Wednesday. “But just 5 feet higher elevation means higher pressure to many of the waterlines.”
The superintendent said preferred water pressure is 50 pounds per square inch, but the higher level raises it to 52 psi, which could cause problems along some of the mains.
The Mahoning Valley Sanitary District pumps water to the city and monitors the elevation, which can be changed by MVSD operators at their Mineral Ridge facility. Catanzarite said elevation, at the city’s request, has been maintained at 1,096 feet.
The result: “The current level seems to be reducing breaks,” the superintendent reported to council.
Catanzarite emphasized he is not attributing the record number of breaks solely to the disparity in elevation levels. Many of the city’s waterlines are nearly 90 years old.
The superintendent said, however, “a joint effort” with the MVSD appears to be helping.
“There’s no one thing we can point at,” Catanzarite said, “but keeping it [elevation] down a few feet makes a difference.”
Another water issue for the city is the fate of computerized water meters that have been stored at the closed Waddell Park swimming pool because the city, in state-declared fiscal emergency since October 2014, has not had the funds and manpower to install them.
“It’s going on seven years,” said city Auditor Giovanne Merlo.
The auditor said he hopes budget allocations and other funding sources may enable the installations to finally be completed this year.
The other major infrastructure issue facing council is the condition of the streets.
Councilman Steve Papalas, D-at large, said the cracks in many of the arteries “show they are ready to go,” while Steve Mientkiewicz, D-2nd, described them as “deplorable.”
“We need a plan for resurfacing [because] this winter is destroying our streets,” said Robert Marino, council president.
Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia said Kevin Robertson, grants coordinator, has been looking into possibilities for funding resurfacing projects, but he said he was told by the coordinator “street grants may be a couple of years away.”
Marino said council needs more information than that.
The mayor said he expects Robertson to address the issue when council has its regular meeting next week.