Mesa Public Schools operations director warns aging sewer pipes pose student health risk

Mike Kramer, executive director of operations and construction for Mesa Public Schools, said aging domestic and sanitary plumbing across the district is a growing operational and safety concern and urged proactive inspection and repair.

"This is a really, really, really big topic," Kramer said, describing plumbing with "an estimated useful life of, like, 40 to 50 years." He told listeners the district manages "over 900 buildings" and that each school has domestic and sanitary sewer systems that must be kept clear and operational "else you cannot host a school setting."

Kramer outlined the district’s recurring maintenance approach: service technicians regularly inspect fixtures and piping, looking for early warning signs such as heavy calcification on fittings. He used a household water heater as an example: when fittings show heavy calcification, "that's a sure sign that you're gonna have a leak in the future," Kramer said, and the district moves to mitigate such conditions before they escalate.

Deterioration of sanitary sewer piping, Kramer said, "has been the number 1 challenge in my 3 years with Mesa Public Schools." He framed the problem as an "absolute health and safety issue," saying that sewage or greywater discharged near students is unacceptable and that early identification and repair is the district’s top priority.

No vote or formal action was recorded in the transcript. Kramer focused on describing the scope of the issue and the district’s inspection-and-repair priorities rather than proposing specific capital projects or funding mechanisms in this exchange.

Kramer said the district’s immediate emphasis is on identifying deteriorating piping before failures occur and repairing them "before they become a major, major issue," reiterating that preventative work is essential to keeping schools open and safe.