Katie Perez and her husband are newcomers to the St. Georges Hundred subdivision.
Barely a month after moving in, they noticed some water around the house. They thought it was from the downspouts. Later, they realized the water was there, rain or shine.
A plumber came in and discovered the water main from their house to the street was made of Quest pipe, which is a trade name for plastic pipes made with polybutylene. According to the website polybutylene.com, the copper-alternative piping was used in residential home construction in the 1980s and early to mid-1990s, including in the Mid-Atlantic and the Sun Belt.
Back at St. Georges Hundred, the couple had to dig up their front lawn and replace the pipe and the connection. During this process, Perez learned she wasn’t alone.
“While we were working on the project, a lot of neighbors came by and said, ‘This happened to me too,’” Perez said.
An official lends support to her observations.
Doug Powell, general manager of the James City Service Authority, said the JCSA has received reports of 25 water-main breaks in and around St. Georges Hundred in the past two months.
Another resident, St. Georges Hundred Homeowners Association President Bob Harman, provides further anecdotal evidence.
Crews have been working on the corner of his street alone four different times, Harman said.
One homeowner paid roughly $4,000 to fix a ruptured water line that ran between their house and the street, he added.
And one break even caused “minor flooding” in a resident’s yard and the street.
“Our subdivision is of the age where our water lines are getting old and wearing out and breaking,” Harman said.
Harman doesn’t believe any residents suffered water damage inside their homes, he added.
Nearly all the repairs have been to saddles, which connect the main to the service connection, according to Powell.
About two months ago, a broken water main caused a temporary spike in water pressure in the area, Powell said — and that may be at the root of the neighborhood’s rash of water-main breaks.
“It’s possible that created a situation where, because the infrastructure is aging and corroding, that triggered why there were those breaks in a short period of time,” Powell said.
The JCSA covers the costs of replacing the parts in the neighborhood’s main lines, which were initially laid by the developer but were transferred to the county, according to Powell. Homeowners are still on the hook for repairs to their homes or yards.
Harman said he has been satisfied with the response from the JCSA, but he has been recommending that residents buy water-line-replacement insurance.
In 2013, James City County allocated $40,000 in funding to help fix an underground pipe issue in St. Georges Hundred that caused two sinkholes in a resident’s yard. That underground pipe system was part of a stormwater-management system.
Residents can report broken-plumbing emergencies to the JCSA by calling 757-229-7421, and after hours and on weekends at 757-566-0112.
“It takes a few hours to dig down and replace the pipe, but it’s almost an immediate response,” Powell said.
