PUC Asked for Hearing on Corrosion From Wells : Duarte Wants Local Water Works to Be Able to Use River as Source

City officials hope they have found their Perry Mason to solve the case of the pinhole leaks.

They also want their sleuth, in this case the state Public Utilities Commission, to act as judge and jury.

City Manager Jesse Duff said the city will ask the PUC to hold a hearing at which, they hope, the commissioners will determine that using water from the San Gabriel River, rather than corrosive well water, will solve the problem.

If the PUC agrees, the city wants the commission to allow the local water company to build a $2.5-million filtration plant that would draw the water out of the river and treat it.

The PUC is being asked to hold the hearing because it has regulatory power over the California-American Water Co. and can order it to provide a better quality of water, Duff said.

California-American has admitted no liability for problems with well water but agrees that the filtration plant would enable it to use river water and solve the problems. However, the PUC two years ago rejected the firm’s request to build the plant and raise water rates to pay for it.

Holes in Pipes

More than 1,000 homes built in the late 1970s and early 1980s have been damaged by water leaking through tiny holes in copper water pipes, city officials say. Some homeowners have had problems with the same pipes more than once.

The pinhole leaks are caused by the interaction of chemicals in the well water with the copper pipes, said Bryan Hinzie, a corrosion engineer with the Metropolitan Water District. Hinzie, who lives in Duarte, has offered to help the city and the irate homeowners.

Similar problems have occurred in dozens of cities throughout the country, including Garden Grove, Anaheim, Santa Fe Springs, Gardena, Dana Point, Cerritos and Tucson, Ariz., leading some engineers to draw the same conclusions as Hinzie.

They also agree that the best solution is to change the chemical makeup of the water.

In a speech at a 1985 seminar of the American Water Works Assn. in Los Angeles, M. J. Schiff, a Claremont corrosion engineer, said: “One problem from the water purveyors’ viewpoint is that water treatment may be the only practical way to stop the corrosion of an existing pipe system even though the water may not have initiated the failures.”

PUC and water company officials were present when nearly 200 irate homeowners demanded a solution to their problems at a town meeting Aug. 5 sponsored by the city and Citizens United for Safe and Non-Corrosive Drinking Water, a homeowners group.

“I have had eight leaks that cost me $10,000,” one resident complained. “I am at my wits’ end, and I am about to sue the city, the water company and the PUC. The city can’t sit on its tail and say it is not legally responsible.”

No Authority

But the city has no authority over the water company, Duff said. “This is a private water company regulated by the state. It (the company) owns the delivery system and the water rights. It is not a city operation.”

The city will ask for the hearing in a formal complaint to be filed with the PUC. No date has been set.

Natalie Hanson, who works for the PUC in helping the public lodge complaints against utilities, said it will be up to Duarte to prove that the best way to solve the problem is to change the chemical makeup of the water, either by additional treatment of well water or by switching to San Gabriel River water.

Both the city and California-American want to stop using well water because of concerns about pollution. That is why the city is backing California-American’s request to build the filtration plant.

San Gabriel River water does not have the chemical imbalance that has helped cause the corrosion, water experts say.

In 1985 the PUC turned down the company’s request to raise water rates 74% over three years to pay for a filtration plant, saying California-American had not proved that the plant was the most economical solution.

This time, Duff said, the city is willing to issue tax-exempt bonds to help pay for the plant, which would ease the burden on customers. If California-American gets permission by early next year, the plant could be operating as early as the end of 1989, said company district manager Andrew Krueger.

In the meantime, California-American is testing another potential solution: caustic soda.

The soda will be injected into well water used in 200 to 400 homes in Duarte to determine if that will solve the problem. The test, which will take at least six months, will cost $30,000.

Study of Alternatives

A study to find other economically feasible solutions will be conducted by an independent engineering company acceptable to both the citizens group and the city, which will pay the estimated $10,000 cost. The homeowners will make a recommendation Monday on which company should conduct the study, expected to take two or three months.

In the meantime, the citizens and the water company are sending questionnaires to the 6,000 households in the city in an attempt to find out how many have had pinhole leaks.

The problem began in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when eight developers built 2,000 homes in Community Redevelopment Agency project areas, all using copper water pipes.

By 1982, homeowners, realizing that their leaks were not isolated incidents, organized and began complaining to the city. Jim Nicholson, a former president of the informal group, told residents at the Aug. 5 town meeting: “Our efforts failed because of the bureaucracy and because the homeowners didn’t stick together. You need to get the city to take an assertive role.”

When the problem first arose, the city “took the position of being a mediator, facilitating meetings and communications between homeowners, developers and the water company,” Duff said.

Until last year, some of the developers and insurance companies paid for repairs to the pipes and damage caused by the leaks.

They stopped payments because they thought the problems would continue until the composition of the water was changed, said Peg Kean of Kaufman and Broad Home Corp.

Repairs Cost $100,000

Kaufman and Broad built 231 homes in Duarte between 1979 and 1982. Of those, 131 developed leaks, and the company made 275 repairs at a cost of $100,000, Kean said. Since Kaufman and Broad had problems in 57% of the homes it built, the city is using that figure as an indication of how many homes in the redevelopment projects have similar problems.

When the homeowners began complaining in 1982, California-American commissioned a study by Henry Cruse, a corrosion engineer. Cruse reported that although the specific factors causing the rapid pitting of copper are difficult to determine, the remedy must involve treating the water, since the pipe cannot be readily replaced.

Cruse reviewed several possible solutions but concluded that caustic soda would be the most economical method of adjusting the chemical content of Duarte’s water.

“We didn’t follow through because we had no idea how extensive the problem would be, and treating all of the wells was not economically viable,” Krueger said. In addition to the $100,000 needed to set up the system, the annual cost was estimated at about $150,000.

The issue lay dormant until last March, when homeowners with pinhole-leak problems, led by Ron Johnson, appealed to the City Council for help. The council approved the independent study to be discussed Monday, but about 60 homeowners who did not want to rely completely on the city decided to research their options themselves, Johnson said.

The residents looked for companies to conduct the study after the city received only one response in its initial request for proposals. They also compiled the questionnaire being sent to each home and made plans to file a formal complaint with the PUC.

“The city helps us to a certain degree, but we can’t relinquish control or the issue will die as it did in 1982,” Johnson said.

On Wednesday, the residents will determine whether they can raise enough money to hire a lawyer who has been serving as a free consultant. The lawyer, Joel Castro, said some homeowners have expressed interest in filing a claim against California-American and the city and a lawsuit against the developers and the copper pipe manufacturers.