By Tim O’Meilia
One of the nation’s richest communities — where almost every home has a waterfront view — hides a sclerotic and rotting network of water pipes beneath its finely landscaped lawns.
Ten years after a previous Town Commission rejected the plan, Manalapan town commissioners in September approved a $210,000 contract to design a $3 million project to replace more than 3 miles of water distribution pipes along A1A, across the Intracoastal Waterway to Point Manalapan and along U.S. 1 in Hypoluxo, which buys town water.
And they asked engineering consultant Mock Roos & Associates to develop a plan to examine several more thousand feet of pipe along A1A, where piping that dates from the ’40s and ’50s delivers town residents their drinking water. Depending on what is found, the result could substantially increase the cost of the project.
At the town’s southern tip, engineers discovered a mix of asbestos-lined, cast iron and polyvinyl chloride in a hodgepodge of sizes. “We found pipe sizes that went from 2 feet to 4 feet to 6 feet, back to 4, then to 2,” said consultant Henry Glaus of Mock Roos.
“It’s uncomfortable using asbestos piping for potable water. That’s only used in Third World countries now,” said Commissioner Donald Brennan. “It’s a jerry-rigged, patched-together system. It’s not something you’d expect to find in our community.”
Glaus said the immediate cause for the $3 million rebuild is that the system doesn’t meet minimum water pressure standards for firefighting. That required an interconnection on the mainland with Boynton Beach to guarantee that those standards would be met.
A 2008 report uncovered the same problems as years earlier, but no work was done.
“The costs have increased 20 percent since that report,” said Commissioner David Cheifetz, adding that costs will increase. “We’ve got to move forward.”
A contract on the project is not likely to be approved for six to eight months.
In other business, commissioners voted unanimously to inoculate 30 town-owned trees for Rugose spiraling whitefly. The town already has sprayed its trees against the pest. King Tree Service offered the trunk injections for $25 per tree, much less than the typical $40-$60 price, if the town would inform its residents that they could get the discounted rate as well.
Commissioners agreed. They declined to enact an ordinance requiring residents to treat infestations. Ú
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