St. Louis Water director warns of aging pipes, rising delinquencies as master plan begins

A day without water, what would that be like? Director Neeraj Patel, head of the St. Louis Water Division, asked the Public Infrastructure and Utilities Committee on June 11 as he outlined the utility’s fiscal year 2025 review and near-term work.

Patel told the committee the Water Division has executed a $1,275,000 contract to produce a 20-year water master plan that will inventory infrastructure, update hydraulic models, forecast demand and identify a capital renewal plan. He said the plan will inform but not replace a separate cost-of-service and rate-sufficiency study the division must complete to satisfy bond indentures and to evaluate future rate changes.

The nut graf: Patel said the division faces substantial deferred capital needs and system stress — an average of about 340 main breaks a year, a transmission assessment estimated at $5,000,000, and a lead-service-line replacement universe that could cost in the hundreds of millions — while roughly a quarter of billed accounts are delinquent.

Patel outlined key fiscal and operational figures. The utility reports roughly 12,600 metered accounts and about 77,992 flat-rate accounts; it sold less…