@James & Greg: thanks for the poop about Veolia. That certainly aligns with my experience as a customer/outside observer; not particularly helpful or knowledgeable help desk, opaque or non-existent community outreach, the general feeling like actually serving their residential customers runs counter to their business plan.

I can only imagine they bought a water company in southern New York State because they knew that there was going to be a lot of tech expansion in the region - not because the existing Joe Homeowner market was so lucrative.

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Dave, when I left Veolia they asked me to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement and a document to say I would not work for one of their competitors for 12 months after I left Veolia, and I would not attempt to entice or take Veolia staff to any new role I accepted.

The piping has exceeded its life expectance and will continue to rupture, but there does not seem to be any proactive repair measures planned.”

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Keep the Calgary example in mind when you hear people complaining about municipal taxes.  Too many politicians got elected by racing to the bottom on lower taxes.  Pretty much every municipality now has what they call an infrastructure deficit, ie, the difference between what is spent vs what should be spent to keep roads and pipes reliable.

This is happening in LA as well, as I expect it is across the country.  Much of LA’s water system infrastructure is approaching 100 years old.  Water main breaks have been a regular occurrence.  Over the last ten years, multi-year upgrades have been happening all over the San Fernando Valley.  Two lane streets have gone down to one to accommodate what often takes a year or more to replace underground pipes.  This has been long needed replacement although in some spots, particularly the Hollywood Hills, the already notorious traffic has become even more congested only on city streets instead of the overcrowded highways.  

No matter the season, water main breaks seem to be a major problem in every major metropolitan area. 

The amount of money it would cost to overhaul the entire infrastructure will bankrupt any city. And that's not factoring in cost overruns and potential scope-creep. Thus, the Band-Aid approach is used to keep things going.

Infuriating!