Here’s a problem you might not expect to deal with: bits of
your stormwater infrastructure disappearing in the night.
As reported in the November issue
of Water Environment & Technology, over two days in August, 106
catch-basin covers were stolen in Cleveland. That’s 6 tons of cast iron, which
the thieves presumably are selling as scrap metal. The article also mentions
other cities that are having similar losses of metal inventory like water meters
and sewer grates: Philadelphia (2,000 inlet covers); Long Beach, California (80
sewer covers and eight fire hydrants); and Flint, Michigan (400 manhole covers).
Purchasing replacements for these
items, and the labor to get them back where they belong, costs far more than the
value of the metal. Their value as scrap perhaps $10 to $20 per manhole cover at
today’s prices, which have risen in the last few years from about $35 a ton to
more than $400 a ton in some places. Cities also face liability issues because
of mishaps caused by the missing items—people falling into open manholes, for
example. Some cities are considering using alternative materials like fiberglass
or polyurethane for manhole covers, or at least placing alarms on them.
Has your city experienced a
similar problem, either with outright theft or with vandalism of materials or
equipment? Do you include an item in your budget specifically to deal with it?