MISSOULA — Ah, springtime. The smell of flowers in the air, the light showers throughout the day, the sounds of birds chirping, and the sound of construction equipment? That's right. At this time of year, the City of Missoula gets busy replacing dozens of sections of water mains.
“We've got an old infrastructure in the grounds, generally has served its life cycle, likely leaking. And so we basically prioritize our water main replacements by material type and age, and then choose from there,” said City of Missoula Engineer for Utilities Andy Schultz.
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A vast majority of the water mains in Missoula are almost 100 years old, and with that comes a lot of leakage. The leakage at first may not seem like a big issue as the water seeps back into the aquifer, but a lot of power is wasted pumping that water.
“We're at almost a 50% leakage rate. So about half the water that we pump from the aquifer gets distributed through the pipes and then leaks back into the aquifer,” explained Schultz.
But the city has been trying to address the leakage.
“It took a year or two before we actually started to see that significant drop in leakage. And now we're probably about 18% down below our peak,” said Schultz.
The city replaces water mains in sections, about 1% every year. The new pipes being installed are rated to have a service life of 100 years.
But the city still has a lot of catching up to do after taking over the water system in 2018, as the previous owners, the Carlyle Group, put off maintenance for years.
“Private equity exists to generate profit for their constituents and not necessarily looking after the public. And so we certainly saw a big increase in our deferred maintenance when the lawsuit for condemnation for the city to take over,” said Schultz.
The cost for replacing all the mains typically costs anywhere from $400 to $500 a foot, with a project like the one on Caitlin Street and Montana Street coming out to roughly $1 million.
And one other thing for you: The City of Missoula typically doesn't use tax dollars to replace the water mains. That is, unless they're putting in new water mains at the same time. All of the funding comes from the water utility fees that they collect throughout the year.
