Abstract
Drinking water systems can misbehave in a variety of ways: pipe breaks, loss of pressure, inadequate flow, poor quality water, and others. Yet, the costs and consequences associated with these misbehaving systems are seldom comprehensively evaluated when systems are designed, operated, and maintained. These costs are often borne by a variety of stakeholders, including utility companies, consumers, and taxpayers. However, these costs can also cascade to other parties rarely considered, with possible impacts on couriers, public transport infrastructure, firefighters, homeowners, businesses, and institutions, often in ways that are difficult to quantify. Adding to the complexity, some initially bad consequences can occasionally have unexpected benefits, particularly when the resulting lessons lead to better ways of designing, operating, or rehabilitating systems. This paper explores some of this complexity with the goals of provoking greater discussion and increasing our understanding of how water systems can misbehave, and how much this misbehavior can cost, with the ultimate goal of better understanding the evaluation of risk.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Abokifa, A. A., Yang, Y. J., Lo, C. S., & Biswas, P. (2016). Water quality modeling in the dead end sections of drinking water distribution networks. Water Research, 89, 107–117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2015.11.025.
AWWA. (2002). Effects of water age on distribution system water quality. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water Standards and Risk Management Division, Washington, DC.
Bartram, J. (Ed.). (2007). Legionella and the prevention of legionellosis. World Health Organization.
Black, T., & Chiglinsky, K. (2021, February, 19). Water pipes burst across Texas, setting off a hunt for plumbers. Bloomberg. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-19/texas-thaw-sets-off-frantic-hunt-for-plumbers-ready-to-wrench.
Beckett, S. (1983). Worstward Ho. https://genius.com/Samuel-beckett-worstward-ho-annotated.
Besner, M.-C., Prévost, M., & Regli, S. (2011). Assessing the public health risk of microbial intrusion events in distribution systems: Conceptual model, available data, and challenges. Water Research, 45, 961–979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2010.10.035.
Bloetscher, F. A. (2009). Water basics for decision makers: Local officials’ guide to Water & Wastewater Systems. American Water Works Association.
Colombo, A., Lee, P., & Karney, B. (2009). A selective literature review of transient-based leak detection methods. Journal of Hydro-Environment Research, 2(4), 212–227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jher.2009.02.003.
Declerck, P., Behets, J., Margineanu, A., van Hoefa, V., De Keersmaeckera, B., & Olleviera, F. (2009). Replication of Legionella pneumophila in biofilms of water distribution pipes. Microbiological Research, 164, 593–603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.micres.2007.06.001.
Douterelo, I., Jackson, M., Solomon, C., & Boxall, J. (2017). Spatial and temporal analogies in microbial communities in natural drinking water biofilms. Science of the Total Environment, 581–582, 277–288. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2016.12.118.
Farewell, T. S., Jude, S., & Pritchard, O. (2018). How the impacts of burst water mains are influenced by soil sand content. Natural Hazards and Earth Systems Sciences, 18, 2951–2968. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2951-2018.
Fernandes, C., & Karney, B. (2004). Modelling the advection equation under water hammer conditions. Urban Water Journal, 1, 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/15730620412331290038.
Francisque, A., Tesfamariam, S., Kabir, G., & Haider, H. (2017). Water mains renewal planning framework for small to medium sized water utilities: A life cycle cost analysis approach. Urban Water Journal, 14, 493–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2016.1223321.
Gaewski, P. E., Tata and Howard Inc., Blaha, F. J., & AwwaRF. (2007). Analysis of the Total Cost of Large Diameter Pipe Failures. http://infra-tect.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Analysis-of-Total-Cost-of-Large-Diameter-Pipe-Failures.pdf..
Ghorbanian, V., Karney, B., & Guo, Y. (2017). Intrinsic relationship between energy consumption, pressure, and leakage in water distribution systems. Urban Water Journal, 14, 515–521. https://doi.org/10.1080/1573062X.2016.1223325.
Grant, A., Scherer, M. M., Land, D., Cwiertny, D. M., Edwards, M. A. Mount, J., & Latta, D. E. (2020). Estimating consumers at risk from drinking elevated lead concentrations: An Iowa case study. Environmental Science & Technology Letters. acs.estlett.0c00753. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.estlett.0c00753.
Gray, N. F. (2014). Pathogen control in drinking water. In Microbiology of waterborne diseases (pp. 537–569). Elsevier.
Grigg, N. S. (2017). Water supply pipeline failures: Investigative procedures and data management. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 31, 06017004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0001113.
Horn, H., Reiff, H., & Morgenroth, E. (2003). Simulation of growth and detachment in biofilm systems under defined hydrodynamic conditions. Biotechnology and Bioengineering, 81, 607–617. https://doi.org/10.1002/bit.10503.
Larsen, S. L., Christensen, S. C. B., Albrechtsen, H.-J., & Rygaard, M. (2017). GISMOWA: Geospatial risk-based analysis identifying water quality monitoring sites in distribution systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 143, 04017018.
Levi, E. (1995). The science of water: The foundations of modern hydraulic. ASCE Press.
Linder, K. (1991). Fire Protection Handbook (17th ed.). National Fire Protection Association.
Masten, S. J., Davies, S. H., Haider, S. W., & McPherson, C. R. (2019). Reflections on the lead and copper rule and lead levels in Flint’s water: Reflections on the lead and copper rule and lead levels in Flint’s water. Journal—American Water Works Association, 111, 42–55. https://doi.org/10.1002/awwa.1360.
Masten, S. J., Davies, S. H., & Mcelmurry, S. P. (2016). Flint water crisis: what happened and why? Journal‐American Water Works Association, 108(12), 22–34.
Ostfeld, A., Uber, J. G., Salomons, E., Berry, J. W., Hart, W. E., Phillips, C. A., Watson, J.-P., Dorini, G., Jonkergouw, P., Kapelan, Z., di Pierro, F., Khu, S.-T., Savic, D., Eliades, D., Polycarpou, M., Ghimire, S. R., Barkdoll, B. D., Gueli, R., Huang, J. J., … Walski, T. (2008). The battle of the water sensor networks (BWSN): A design challenge for engineers and algorithms. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 134, 556–568.
Percival, S. L., & Williams, D. W. (2014). Legionella. In Microbiology of Waterborne Diseases (pp. 155–175). Elsevier.
Pieper, K. J., Tang, M., & Edwards, M. A. (2017). Flint water crisis caused by interrupted corrosion control: Investigating “ground zero” home. Environmental Science and Technology, 51, 2007–2014. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.6b04034.
Pietrucha-Urbanik, K. (2015). Failure analysis and assessment on the exemplary water supply network. Engineering Failure Analysis, 57, 137–142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2015.07.036.
Piratla, K. R., Yerri, S. R., Yazdekhasti, S., et al. (2015). Empirical analysis of water-main failure consequences. Procedia Engineering, 118, 727–734. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.507.
Propato, M., & Uber, J. G. (2004). Vulnerability of water distribution systems to pathogen intrusion: How effective is a disinfectant residual? Environmental Science and Technology, 38, 3713–3722. https://doi.org/10.1021/es035271z.
Shen, Y., Monroy, G. L., Derlon, N., Janjaroen, D., Huang, C., Morgenroth, E., Boppart, S. A., Ashbolt, N. J., Liu, W.-T., & Nguyen, T. H. (2015). Role of biofilm roughness and hydrodynamic conditions in Legionella pneumophila adhesion to and detachment from simulated drinking water biofilms. Environmental Science and Technology, 49, 4274–4282. https://doi.org/10.1021/es505842v.
Tee, K. F., Khan, L. R., Chen, H. P., & Alani, A. M. (2014). Reliability based life cycle cost optimization for underground pipeline networks. Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology, 43, 32–40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2014.04.007.
Vick, S. (2002). Degree of belief: Subjective probability and judgement. American Society of Civil Engineers.
Wang, R., Wang, Z., Wang, X., & Yang, H. (2014). Pipe burst risk state assessment and classification based on water hammer analysis for water supply networks. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 140. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000404.
Wang, X., Waqar, M., Yan, H.-C., Louati, M., Ghidaoui, M. S., Lee, P. J., Meniconi, S., Brunone, B., & Karney, B. (2020). Pipeline leak localization using matched-field processing incorporating prior information of modeling error. Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing, 143(11). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ymssp.2020.106849.
Ward, B., Smith, D., Savic, D., Roebuck, J., & Collingbourne, J. (2017). Optimized investment planning for high-volume low-value buried infrastructure assets. Journal of Pipeline Systems Engineering and Practice, 8, 0. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)PS.1949-1204.0000266.
Wilson, D., Filion, Y. R., & Moore, I. D. (2015). Identifying factors that influence the factor of safety and probability of failure of large-diameter, cast iron water mains with a mechanistic, stochastic model: A case study in the city of hamilton. Procedia Engineering, 119, 130–138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.863.
Zamenian, H., Faust, K. M., Mannering, F. L., Abraham, D., & Iseley, T. (2017). Empirical assessment of unobserved heterogeneity and polyvinyl chloride pipe failures in water distribution systems. Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities, 31(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)CF.1943-5509.0001067.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2021 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Karney, B., Gibson, J. (2021). Misbehaving Drinking Water Systems: Risk and the Complex Nature of Failure. In: Walker, T., Gramlich, D., Vico, K., Dumont-Bergeron, A. (eds) Water Risk and Its Impact on the Financial Markets and Society. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77650-3_10
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77650-3_10
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-77649-7
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77650-3
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)