r/Hydrology • u/Granbabbo • 8d ago

How does leaking water infrastructure impact urban ecosystems?

/r/ecology/comments/1hj0k66/how_does_leaking_water_infrastructure_impact/
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u/beardedbarnabas 8d ago

Something else to consider is leaky stormwater and wastewater systems. Contamination in those systems leak out into the soil and eventually ground water. Then we also have contaminated groundwater that will leak into busted pipes and convey that contamination elsewhere through infrastructure, likely leaking out into soil and groundwater in other locations lol.

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u/Crafty_Ranger_2917 8d ago

Pretty typical water utility stats for a small number of major breaks over the year.....35 MGD for a period. The article doesn't break out any other details, but there are a number of things that go into it, some more nuanced than others.

Like how much water is used in drinking water treatment, can be a lot for some processes. Meter inaccuracy is a big one but super sticky subject and really hard to pin down to low % accuracy. There are all sorts of ways the city is using water and its not accounted for. At the end of the day there is probably about 12% uncertainty to that 15% value....and a drop in the bucket in the scheme of things, on the natural environment scale.

For any significant leaks, the water route would most likely be water main - street - storm sewer - Atlantic.

Small leaks generally water main - follows main trench downhill - return to ground water - some amount into storm drain. Many lakes around the city and of course coastal, lot of ground water, so its just reentering the cycle underground.