By Rachel Lippmann, St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis – Missouri American Water says age caused a 20-inch water main to break Tuesday morning, flooding Clayton Road near Hanley.
"The water main is about 80 years old, and we know from the type of break that it was just about the corrosion of that line," said spokeswoman Ann Dettmer about the rupture, which occurred around 5 a.m. Tuesday.
Missouri American has a program to replace aging pipes before they break, Dettmer said. But it can't get to all the trouble spots on a system with 4,200 miles of pipe.
"If you think about a highway that length, you're going to have potholes from time to time and it can be hard to predict where those might form," she said. The company had replaced a section of pipe just north of the segment that broke today.
A secondary pipe kept water service going to most of the company's customers, Dettmer said, though some may have experienced low water pressure.