Is This Drip Necessary?

When the Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority opened its new $10 million water-treatment plant at Key West last January, customers were moist with expectation. At last, Diane and William Radloff of Key Largo would be able to take a long, forceful shower. At last, Edison Archer of Plantation Key would be able to get a good glass of water in a hurry. At last, toilets up and down the Keys would flush properly. And all this for a mere doubling of monthly water bills. Or so everyone thought. In December, before the plant opened, the Radloffs had paid $14.84 for a month's supply to their one-bath home. In January the bill tripled, to $45.36. In February it jumped to $1,338. Archer got one monthly bill for $1,500. Some customers were billed as much as $4,000. The problem? Old, rusty, fragile pipes throughout the Keys could not handle the vastly increased water pressure. One by one, the pipes burst. Water seeped into the ground quietly, expensively. And the Keys Aqueduct Authority just kept on billing. Many of the ruptured pipes are on homeowners' property, and, a spokesman for the authority says, the owners will have to fix them. But the authority's central distribution system is losing 1 million gal. a day. Officials estimate it would take five years and $50 million to $60 million to replace the system's rotted pipes. Guess who will pay for that?

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