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"City of Milwaukee water officials told a Common Council committee Wednesday that the break at a major pumping facility has been found, but the temporary fix has caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage.A major leak was found over the weekend in an 84-inch water main at the Texas Avenue Pumping Station. The leak was severe enough that crews had to shut down the facility as well as the Howard Avenue treatment plant.\u00A0VIDEO:\u00A0Cost to repair Milwaukee's water main breaks soarsIn order to maintain pressure in the system, flow from the Linnwood water treatment plant was increased.The increase of pressure on the city's northwest side began causing a rash of water main breaks. Thirty breaks were reported Sunday, with 20 more reported by Monday.As of Wednesday morning, 76 breaks had been recorded.A five-year average of water main breaks is 528 per year. So far in 2014, 660 breaks have been reported.Superintendent Carrie Lewis told a Milwaukee Common Council committee Wednesday that the leak at the Texas Avenue station has been found and is being repaired.She said that while some breaks were expected due to the increased water pressure near the Linnwood facility, crews are repairing far more than they expected.Lewis said each repair costs around $10,000.As for proactively replacing the aging infrastructure, a rough estimate is $1 million per mile of pipe.\"The majority of breaks that are happening are happening to a younger vintage of water mains,\" Milwaukee DPW Superintendent Ghassan Korban said.City officials said the housing boom of the 1950s may be partially to blame. \u00A0Many cities, including Milwaukee, struggled to lay municipal lines to rapidly expanding residential areas. The fast construction schedules and materials of the time may not be withstanding the water pressure needed for today's needs.Repairs at the Texas Avenue facility could keep the station offline for up to two weeks, but based on the location of the break officials think it could be sooner."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.wisn.com/article/milwaukee-has-76-water-main-breaks-in-5-days/6321508>