Three Things About Water

by Glenn C. Koenig, Webmaster at Town Wide Mall

Note:  I began work on this story on September 1st, before the water main break, but have now updated it.

Maynard, MA - After waiting all summer for relief from a Level 3 water restriction, residents were pleased to learn that recent rains had eased the region wide drought enough for The Maynard Public Works Department to lower restrictions to Level 2, instead, on the last day in August.  Finally, the town could remove the familiar red signs that had been placed all around town, back in June.
But three days later, a serious overnight water main break changed all that.  The town had to put the signs back up.  They updated the water division's web site to inform residents of a "Level 4: Emergency" water restriction.

Since the town lost 33% of its water reserves due to the break, residents were then asked to "Reduce the use of nonessential potable [drinking quality] water."  If everyone in town continues to follow the guidelines, the town hopes to replenish a significant portion of its reserves by Tuesday, the 8th of September or soon thereafter.  In an informal conversation I had with a member of the Select Board on Saturday morning, indications are that the level in the tanks is well on its way back to normal levels.  I want to thank everyone who has responded by limiting their water use during this critical time.

On September 3rd, the Maynard Voice quickly published a story with details about the water main break and the new restrictions. I'm publishing this story now to complement their coverage, to tell the sequence of events from the beginning, and add a video and photos of the event.

UPDATE - Tuesday, September 8, 2026 - Earlier today the Maynard Department of Public Works posted an announcement, saying, in part, "The Town has reached sufficient storage capacity levels and will now be instituting a level 2 - Water Restriction. This restriction will allow for some outdoor use and all indoor uses. Please continue to monitor the website for updates as conditions may change." They provided a graphic detailing restrictions under Level 2.  I've included a copy, in an appendix, below.

Sequence of Events

Some time in the very early hours of Thursday, September 3rd, while most folks in town were asleep, a water main ruptured beneath the private road leading into the Summerhill Glen housing complex, just off Thomas Street.  Thomas street connects to Lower Beacon Street at the other end, just a few feet from the junction with Florida Road, near the Florida Road Bridge. The map, below, shows the exact location. It's easy to see how close to the river this is.

Water main breaks are almost always reported by residents who notice water bubbling up out of the ground, or running down the pavement somewhere, and then call the police.  The police answer the phone any time of day or night and can quickly contact the public works employee on duty to shut off the water in the affected area, and start the process to make repairs.
But at the time of night when this occurred, at the end of a small street with very little traffic, no one was around to notice.  Water began pouring up and over the pavement, down the embankment nearby, and into the Assabet River.
Around 5 AM, when the level of water in the town's main water tanks, at the top of Summer Hill, dropped low enough, a sensor to set off an alarm.  That alarm notified a water department foreman that there was a serious loss of water going on.

He got into his truck and began driving through town, stopping at each of the bridges over the Assabet River, looking for cloudy or muddy water below.  Water of this amount always carries soil and sand down with it, polluting the river.  Spotting  this cloudy water helps locate the source of the break.  He discovered just such discolored water at the Florida Road Bridge and worked his way up to the source, which turned out to be at the border where Thomas Street meets the access road to Summerhill Glen.

He recorded about 6 seconds of video with his cell phone to document the rushing water, then quickly began shutting off the underground valves at either end of the housing complex, to isolate the broken pipe from the rest of Maynard's water system.  He then notified others in the Water Division of the situation.

Update:  Because of his quick action, and the work of others in the department, the town was able to maintain water pressure for the rest of the town, in spite of the water loss.

A few hours later, as I was having breakfast, a friend of mine texted me that she had seen a notice posted on social media by the town.  I rushed down to have a look. 
​What I saw when I got there was a closed street, cracked and damaged pavement, soil and debris all over the roadway, and a water division truck nearby.  I talked with the foreman about the situation, he explained what happened, and shared the video with me.

Since the break was on private property, it was the responsibility of Summerhill Glen's management company, Beacon Communities, to bring in repair crews.  Meanwhile, the pavement had to be marked to show where other utility lines existed in the area, so that crews could avoid damaging them while digging down to reach the specific pipe that had failed.  At this location, the town has all three water lines underground: Fresh water, storm water, and sewer.  There are electrical and natural gas lines through this area as well.

It took awhile for arrangements to be made, but within a few hours, crews showed up to start work.  Meanwhile, residents of the housing complex had to live without running water.

In the above images, you can see the small excavator that was used to dig through the pavement at the surface.  But since there are so many pipes and lines beneath, it was too dangerous to just keep digging that way.  ​

So a hydro vacuum excavator truck was used instead. Workers use a long probe to shoot a small stream of water down into the excavation to loosen the soil, then the resulting soil slurry is vacuumed up into the truck's tank.  Rocks and stones that are too large must be removed carefully by workers with hand tools and other equipment.

This technique exposes the existing utility lines without the risk of damaging them.  The truck in the photo above was brought in by the outside contractor.

Workers also had to use a trench shield (the gray ribbed object to the right, being lowered into the excavation) to keep the surrounding soil from collapsing into the trench.  This is necessary to prevent endangering the workers and causing delays.

As the work progressed, Maynard DPW employees had to be present to make sure the work was done according to quality standards maintained by the DPW.  For example, they had to supervise that the connection between the pipes on both sides of the property line were properly joined and tested for leaks before the excavation was backfilled with new material.

Work continued all day and into the night.  When I arrived around 10 PM to monitor the situation, I found that the broken section had been removed, new pipe installed, and the trench was being backfilled. 

The Water Division foreman on site provided me with a photo of part of the pipe section that had failed.  You can see the extensive corrosion that had built up over the years.

Update - September 9, 2026 - Late yesterday, Department of Public Works Director Justin DeMarco filled me in on the cause of the break.  He wrote, "The pipe failure is a cast iron pipe that suffered from delamination scoring, ..."  That means that it was originally formed in two layers, an outer one and an inner one, which had separated (delaminated).  He continued, "... the outer layer failed and was blown off by pressure exposing the internal descaling, which is evident by the holes."  Descaling is the corrosion that occurs in all metal pipes over time.

He added: "This area has a very high natural water table, evidenced by the adjacency of the river, and the natural flow of ground water. The ground water most likely led to a premature delamination process on the exterior of the piping."  (I have more about the ground water in an appendix, below.)

The water division foreman on the scene also told me that the gate valve they had used to shut off the water on the town's side of the break (on Thomas Street) was not working properly, so it also had to be cut out, along with the next joint and a short section of the pipe.  A new gate valve and coupling was installed to replace it.

While the backfilling was in progress, water department employees were opening the valve to let water back into the section.  They told me that this had to be done slowly, with a hydrant open at the other end, so that the pressure didn't increase too fast.  If the water is introduced too quickly, it can trap air in the pipes, which can cause major problems in water mains.

At home, water can be turned on after plumbing work usually without damaging anything.  You just get gurgling, burping, and spitting when you open your faucets again.  But in water mains, under very high pressure, air pockets can cause surges and vibrations that can strain valves, and stress joints, couplings and older weaker pipes.  When I left, they were still at work to make sure everything went smoothly.

We Interrupt This Program, ...

As I was on the site in the afternoon to take photos of the work, I was approached by reporters from local TV stations who had arrived to cover the event.  I was interviewed by NBC News 10 reporter Matt Prichard.  By 11:00 PM, he had returned to do a live segment, which included portions of an interview I gave earler.  You can watch here:  https://www.nbcboston.com/video/on-air/as-seen-on/maynard-declares-emergency-after-water-main-break/4009196/

The Following Morning

I returned to the site on Friday and found that the work on the water system had been completed.  All the backfilling was done, but the road was still closed because it hadn't been paved yet.  That's because the replacement soil will still need to be leveled out and compacted, then the sewer chamber and access cover, and grating for the storm drain will need to be built up to the correct height.  Later on, both a binder course and a finish course of asphalt must be spread and rolled out and allowed to cool, in two separate operations.

Editorial Note

I created the headline for this story on September 1st, intending to cover three aspects of water in Maynard, before the water main break occurred. Now my plan is to cover the other two topics in a subsequent posting.

Commentary

I have gone into a lot of technical detail in this story.  I have done this because I've become aware of the complexities of our water system and I wanted to share some of that information with you.  I figure that the more you know, the more you will understand why it costs so much to maintain a water system, how difficult it is, and perhaps have a better idea about how to help improve the situation.

Indeed, losing 1/3 of Maynard’s reserve water supply is a serious event, and many people are understandably upset.  After all, we have water restrictions every summer, rates on our water bills are increasing every year, and there are areas in town where the water is frequently discolored.  Why are there all these problems?  Why can’t town officials fix these things?
The answer lies in the complex challenges modern water systems face, and the limited money we have to deal with them.

Long ago, when the population in this area was relatively sparse, one could dig down to find water, install a pipe and a hand pump, and start pumping.  Just don't put your outhouse too close to, or uphill from, your pump!  This was the state of water supply around 200 years ago.  In 1889, Maynard completed its first water system, including the 1.5 million gallon "reservoir" (tank) atop what was then called "Pompasitticutt Hill," now known as Summer Hill.  Even by then, many houses still had outhouses rather than indoor plumbing, so people did not have flush toilets, automatic washing machines, nor carefully manicured lawns, there being no lawn mowers, or other power tools.

A lot has changed since then.  Some of the factors are:
• greater population
• universal indoor plumbing
• expansion of suburbs and private lawns
• improved standards of sanitation
• greater risk of contamination from newly created chemical compounds
​• more frequent droughts in New England

Meanwhile, with inflation, it costs more every year to deliver the same amount of water to residents and busineses.

So, it's tempting to blame town officials and employees for our problems, but in my opinion they are good people who work very hard to stay ahead of the challenges we face in delivering water to the town, under very trying circumstances.
Now that we've had such a high volume loss of water from this break, I expect that new measures to catch this kind of thing in the future will be looked at and implemented if at all possible.  Meanwhile, clean drinking water is amazingly low in cost, when compared to other things (see section below).

What Water Really Costs Us

Water from our public water system is vastly cheaper than any other liquid available.  My latest water bill shows the current rates (see illustration).
The Base Charge covers the fixed charges of operating the water department, regardless of how much water you use.  So let's look at the cost of the water itself.

What may be a little confusing is where it says 0-500 cubic feet has a rate of $3.08.  If you used 500 cubic feet of water, it would appear to cost $1540.00.  Well, that's obviously wrong.  That's because the $3.08 is for 100 cubic feet, not one cubic foot.  Water industry people often abbreviate that as "ccf," where the first "c" stands for 100, as in Roman Numerals.  Don't blame me, I didn't invent this.
So it's only 5 ccf x $3.08 that comes out to $15.40.
The other confusing thing is that this is expressed in cubic feet.  To know how many gallons that is,  each cubic foot is 7.48 gallons.  So 500 cubic feet x 7.48 equals 3,740 gallons.  I know, this seems like one of those dreaded "word problems" you may have had in arithmetic in school, but bear with me.  This means, you're paying $15.40 for 3,740 gallons of water.  Better try that with pennies.  1,540 cents for 3,740 gallons of water gives a rate of 0.41 cents per gallon.  In other words, water costs less than half a cent per gallon, at that rate.
That's for the first 500 cubic feet.  This rate is for single people living on fixed incomes who use very little water.  It gives them a break on the rates.
If you use more, you still pay the same amount for the first 500 cubic feet you use.  On my bill, we used 710 cubic feet last quarter.  That means 210 cubic feet fell into the next rate category, of $8.88 per ccf.  That's $18.65 for that amount of water.  That is equivalent to 1,571 gallons of water.  So, I'm paying just over one penny at 1.19 cents per gallon.  Still a super bargain.
When I first moved to Maynard, back in 2019, I found the bill confusing, so I took some time to figure it out, then made a video about what I learned.  It's using a bill with rates from 2020, but you get the idea.  It spells out what I've said here in more detail, in an easy to follow set of steps.  Here is the link:  https://youtu.be/BXkLAP1TmI4?si=12geblPcY8hpgrw4
​(Note: In the video, I say "I live alone" which was true at the time, but since then I've moved and am now married.) 

The rates for wastewater ("sewer") are higher, but the reasons for that would probably take another whole set of articles to explain, so I'll leave that for later.

Correction - September 8, 2026 - Originally, I stated that "The town does not own such a [Vacuum Excavation] truck because of the cost (between $300,000 and $600,000), and because of the few times per year it would be needed."  In truth, the town does own such a truck, as it is more frequently used than I had realized.  The truck can not only help with delicate excavation work, but also maintenance of the sewers.

Appendices: Outdoor watering, Ground Water, & Very Early History

Appendix 1 - September 8, 2026 -  Here below is the Level 2 water restriction table provided by the Town of Maynard.  I obtained this table from the town's web page:  https://www.townofmaynard-ma.gov/m/newsflash/Home/Detail/572
Please note that links to the town's web site may become invalid over time, as information there is frequently updated. That's why I have included it here, will it will stay put.

Appendix 2:  Groundwater is a complex factor in and of itself.  Because of various ledge, rock, and soil formations, ground water may be present in some places and not in others.  Even during drought conditions, some subsoils may stay wet year round, while others, much deeper down, may become depleted from being pumped out by wells.

One example is the perpetually wet sidewalk and road surface at the base of Lower Beacon Street, where it joins Florida road.  This is easily mistaken for a water main leak, but tests show that it consists of untreated ground water, not treated water from our water system.

Way up behind 61 Summer Street, back in the neighborhood known as "the maze" (behind Brooks, Randall, and Lincoln streets), the ground water is consistently high.  That's why most houses further back from that area are built on slabs, without basements, as the water level is too high to dig a foundation in that area.

This water runs down under the old Fowler School (which is why that building has chronic wet basements), under Summer Street, in the woods behind Carbone Park, under the apartments on Florida Road, and emerges in their parking lot and along the sidewalk.

As you can see by the maps above, this ground water is present very close to where the water main break was on Thomas Road.  Along with the natural ground water level near the river, this makes it very likely to cause corrosion in any underground pipes in the area.

Appendix 3 - Here is an excerpt from a paper I found on the MWRA web site:  https://www.mwra.com/node/1453
"In the early colonial days, water supply technology wasn’t very complex. If you wanted water
run to your house, you bored out your own wooden logs. If you wanted water for your town,
large scale systems of bored-out logs were needed. Incidentally, pipe laying work was as
unpopular back then as it is now because it ruined the roads. Such simple questions as proper
depth, means of connecting services and fire taps arose almost immediately. Soon after the
initial pipes were laid, the real fun began, as the leaks, outages, water quality complaints and
other facts of life for the water supplier became apparent. As with any other emerging
technology, the methods and materials weren’t always up to the challenge."

I think it's important to remember that many water main pipes underground in Maynard (there are over 58 miles of them) were installed many decades ago using a variety of technologies available at the time. Each time a new technology was introduced, it was used to expand the  system or replace the very oldest sections, but it was impractical to dig up and replace everything from before, so we've ended up with a variety of types, as have most towns in New England.

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