LOCKPORT, N.Y. — Paul Marinaccio wanted 2 On-Your-Side to see something.
“Unless you can actually show or somebody sees it, nobody believes that kind of garbage is inside these pipes.”
As part of a storm drain improvement project in the city of Lockport, Marinaccio's contracting company had to move a length of water main. He had the pipe cut open length-wise to show us what was inside.
It was caked with debris. Some larger pieces looked like broken terracotta. Those chunks were covered with an almost black grit. Days earlier, drinking water for Lockport residents, schools and businesses was passing through that main.
Marinaccio says this main was old. He can tell because it's cast iron, which is no longer in use. And he says, local governments like Lockport need financial help to gid rid of these plumbing relics.
"Give these municipalities some money because they’re all broke. Give them some money so we can repair this. Put in some new lines so people don’t have to drink this garbage."
Mayor Anne McCaffrey agrees about the money, not about the assessment of Lockport's water quality.
"What we do every month is that we test forty different locations throughout the entire city.”
An last year, a report on water testing shows the city's water supply is well within state and federal safety guidelines. And she's not alone when it comes to western New York communities with similar water system challenges.
"It is a challenge for all of our cities and villages and towns because we do all have old infrastructure and the volume of issues that we’d like to address versus the amount of money that’s coming in, it just doesn’t match up," says McCaffrey.
The Mayor points to another project planned for later this year. The city is replacing two-miles of pipe that carries water from the Niagara River to the city's filtration plant. The two-miles section was originally installed in 1907.
A Depew contractor was working on improving the storm drains in the city of Lockport. A water line was in the way, so it had to be moved.
A section of the unearthed pipe was sliced in half length-wise revealing the inside, caked with grit and debris.