An Update on the Cleveland Water Main Story follows.

First, if you'd like a good example concerning how public officials put spin on stories, compare the statements of the Cleveland Water Commissioner and the statement from the chief engineer for the Water and Sewer Commission in Boston.

Cleveland Water Commisioner:

"Water Commissioner Julius Ciaccia said tests would be done but they might never yield an answer to why the line broke. He said a building demolition nearby had nothing to do with the break. Possible culprits include corrosive elements in the soil, a structural defect dating back to the pipe's manufacture or, more likely, age. "It's old and probably had a weakness in it after all those years," Ciaccia said.

Outide expert:

"Old pipes don't mean bad pipes," said John Sullivan, chief engineer for the Water and Sewer Commission in Boston, where leaks are dramatically below the national average despite some water mains that predate the Civil War. Other pipe-busting factors, experts say, are manufacturing defects, corrosive soil, vibration from traffic or construction, shifting ground, or surges in water pressure. Cleveland officials are still trying to determine why the rupture that spilled more than 25 million gallons through the heart of downtown occurred."

Notice that the Cleveland Official forgot to mention "surges in water pressure"The same public official also said that Clevelanders can expect to experience a major line breakage like this once a year...huh...

Draw your own conclusions.

Here's the latest update. There's other rellated stories at this site

Repair of water main expected to take 5 days

Link:

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/c14subb.ssf

below is the link to the following story

"Don't blame old lines for flood in Downtown Cleveland, experts say Friday, January 14, 2000

http://www.cleveland.com/news/pdnews/metro/

update to thread link for story above:

http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=002Jjt

Link to original thread on Cleveland Water Main Breaking:

-- Carl Jenkins (Somewherepress@aol.com), January 15, 2000