Three water mains in the Georgia city broke on May 31, leaving numerous residents without water. Many residents remained under a boil water order for days, even as a major pipe was repaired. 

The issue is just one example of the problems caused by the nation’s aging and often brittle water systems.

“A lot of our water infrastructure was built between 50 to 100 years ago, so there’s quite a bit of it that’s at the end of its service life and we see this in water main breaks,” said Richard Luthy, a civil and environmental engineering professor at Stanford University. 

He said main breaks are a “common story” in older cities; “it’s just a symptom that these need to be replaced.”

The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated in 2021 that a water main breaks every two minutes in the U.S. — leaking enough water to fill 9,000 swimming pools each day. 

Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.

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