Gas distribution pipeline corrosion and leaks

Framing statistic — five percent of US potable water and five percent of distributed gas lost to leaks in aging corroding pipe, across half a million miles of 60–70-year-old major pipe.

About five percent of all the potable water distributed in the United States is lost through leaks in the pipe, due to corrosion and other things. My house is eighty years old, and I had some construction done on it, and this spring when the grass came up, the water line from the street into the house — the grass was growing great even though I wasn't watering it, because the line underneath is leaking. The town's losing all that water once it gets beyond my foundation. There's the meter that I have to pay for. The town just knows that five percent of the water in distribution is lost through leaks. That is also true in gas pipe. About five percent of all the gas we distribute in this country — we've got something like a half-million miles of major pipe for oil and gas in this country, much of which is sixty to seventy years old, and corroding big-time.