National Grid to seek $5m reimbursement after water main break

National Grid will seek repayment from the Boston Water and Sewer Commission for nearly $5 million in estimated expenses so far for pumping out flooded natural gas pipes in the Financial District and North End after a weekend water main break, the utility said yesterday.

Work continued yesterday on restoring gas service, but National Grid will miss a previous target of restoring service to all 410 affected customers by today and is now shooting for tomorrow.

An official with the gas utility said it will not pass its costs on to customers, because it believes, based on its preliminary legal analysis, that the water commission is liable for the damage.

"If it is determined, like we think it is, that this was the result of the water main break, we would be like other people affected by water damage to their building," said Nickolas Stavropoulos, executive vice president of US gas distribution for National Grid. "We've got to work all that out."

Most of the cost is for overtime payments for National Grid crews brought in from all over New England and New York and specialized pumping equipment.

A Water and Sewer Commission spokesman said there had been no resolution to the issue of who would be liable for not only National Grid's direct costs, but also lost business for restaurants that have had to shut down and hotel bills and other bills for residents affected.

A 12-inch, high-pressure water main in the Financial District burst early Saturday morning, flooding the Financial District and sending a torrent of water streaming into National Grid's gas distribution network.

Of 410 customers whose gas service was shut off while National Grid pumped out water, 300 had been restored by 7 p.m. yesterday. The utility said earlier in the week all customers should be back in service by today, but said yesterday that portions of the Financial District would remain out until tomorrow. One large customer, the 400-unit Devonshire high-rise apartments, has had service restored, but the Hilton hotel in the Financial District had not.

Sean Smith, general manager of the Hilton Boston Financial District, said the outage mainly affected its kitchen and that the hotel managers were having hot breakfasts brought in from a sister hotel in Woburn.

Stavropoulos said the utility had reintroduced gas to 98 percent of the 13 miles of affected gas lines and was beginning to pump gas out of individual customers' pipes. The Hilton hotel, for example, had about 1,000 gallons of water trapped in basement gas lines.

Stavropoulos also said that National Grid hired locksmiths, who, accompanied by Boston police officers, gave National Grid crews access to some locked buildings to turn off service and assess the intrusion of water.

As the cleanup continued, one utility watchdog said that Saturday morning's break points to the need for regular maintenance of an aging infrastructure.

"Boston Water and Sewer, like every other water system in Massachusetts, is likely to be confronted by more and more breaks like this," said John McNabb, director of research and policy for Clean Water Action of New England.

He said many of Boston's pipes are more than 100 years old and made of brittle cast-iron pipes intended to last 100 to 120 years. In the 1920s, a thinner cast-iron material was commonly used for pipes, and that was intended to last about 75 to 80 years.

"Most of the pipes in the ground are nearing the end of their useful life," he said.

Tom Bagley, Water and Sewer Commission spokesman, said a portion of the burst pipe has been sent to a laboratory for testing, as officials work to determine the cause of the break, a key factor in determining who will be liable for the costs of the cleanup. He said he did not know how old the pipe was that burst.

Bagley said the commission has been replacing or relining 17 miles of pipe every year.

McNabb said his group has been advocating for state legislation to establish a statewide commission to oversee the state's aging drinking water infrastructure. He said there is no state requirement that water systems replace their pipes, leading to a patchwork of replacement schedules that tend to be inadequate.

John C. Drake can be reached at jdrake@globe.com.