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Engineers urge staged pressure increase to limit leaks in old mains
Summary
Technical lead Lucas Hillsburn told the council the city must phase any pressure increase (starting at about +5 PSI) to detect and repair leaks in aging cast-iron mains; the team flagged monitoring, hydro-pneumatic tanks and variable-speed drives as critical controls.
Engineers told the council that operationalizing higher distribution pressure requires a deliberate, staged approach to reduce the chance of widespread main failures. "There are, with every community, there's a lot of old mains, and you never know how those mains are gonna hold up when you start increasing the pressure," Lucas Hillsburn said, explaining the need to raise pressure incrementally and monitor for leakage.
The consultants recommended initial increases of roughly 5 PSI, a monitoring period of several weeks and subsequent incremental bumps while crews repair issues. They also described how hydro-pneumatic tanks and variable-frequency drives allow pumps to stop at low flows and maintain system stability, and they emphasized installing dual pressure measurement (tower side and distribution side) so pumps respond correctly to system conditions.
Council members asked about pipe materials and the prevalence of small-diameter mains downtown; consultants confirmed many downtown mains are old cast iron and said those locations should be evaluated carefully during the design and commissioning phases.
