Here's Some Perspective on the Enormous UCLA Water Main Break

24.19K

Dennis Mersereau

07/30/14 08:00AM

Filed to: ucla

In a state seeing one of the worst droughts in its history, water is a precious commodity. Yesterday's burst of a nearly century-old water main wasted eight to ten million gallons of water, putting more strain on California's already-burdened resources. Here's some perspective on how much water Los Angeles really lost yesterday.

The average thunderstorm can drop hundreds of millions of gallons of water during its lifespan. During a small thunderstorm that covers just two square miles of land, it will drop eight million gallons of water for every one quarter of an inch of rain it produces.

I used an acreage calculator on Daft Logic's website to find the rough area affected by the flooding, and the approximate area impacted by the water main break is just a little more than 100 acres.

According to the USGS, 8 to 10 million gallons of water flooding a 100-acre patch of land equates to 3 to 4 inches of rain. The amount of water wasted in yesterday's water main break is the same as a thunderstorm bubbling up over UCLA's campus and producing the same amount of rain LAX has seen since January 1 (3.55").

That's a ton of water. Well, 33381 to 41726 tons of water.

Any rain that falls over the next seven days in California's hardest-hit drought areas will generally amount to less than one tenth of an inch.

[Images via AP and Daft Logic/Google Maps]

1

fromedamsaughtox Dennis Mersereau 07/30/14 11:22AM

When you say 3.55 inches at LAX, do you mean just over the footprint of the airport? Even, so, you seem to be introducing all kinds of variables here. LAX is 3,400 acres. In water use terms, when you consider that many toilets flush one gallon, 10 million is not a staggering amount. I guess your point is that 10 million gallons on 100 acres is a lot. Just like 1,000 gallons in a house basement is a lot. But in terms of the drought, not much of a factor. I think LA uses goes through about 300 million gallons a day.

1

Dennis Mersereau fromedamsaughtox 07/30/14 11:40AM

When I say 3.55 inches at LAX, I mean that the theoretical rainstorm sitting over UCLA would produce roughly the same amount of rain measured at LAX's weather station since January 1 — 3.55 inches. Not gallons, but the rain gauge measurement.

1

fromedamsaughtox Dennis Mersereau 07/30/14 11:49AM

Well, yeah, but any water main break that floods a street, or a block, or any confined area is going translate to a large rainfall reading on any rain gauge. The whole drought thing is not very relevant, since we are only talking about 100 acres. It just seemed like you were using this translation to make it seem like this had some significance for the drought, when really it doesn't—though I realize every drop is precious. Plus, by itself, "the same amount of rain measured at LAX's weather station since January 1 — 3.55 inches," doesn't mean anything, though I guess you mean a 3.55 inch rain over 100 acres.

3

Let's help 'em out Dennis Mersereau 07/30/14 11:15AM

Good thing California doesn't have a water shortage, right??

...wait, what?

FUCK

1

Dr_Zoidberg Dennis Mersereau 07/30/14 11:23AM

Holy cow...that's seriously scary.