Broken 12-Inch Water Main Causes Minimal Flooding

A 12-inch water main that broke near John Muir Middle School was being repaired Wednesday morning after causing minimal flooding near the intersection of Leonard Drive and Williams Street.

An East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) spokeswoman said the break was reported about 4:25 am.

As of 10:15, a repair crew at the scene estimated that the cracked, concrete pipe would be replaced with a plastic conduit some time around noon.

But it could take most of the afternoon to refill the sinkhole created by the leak and refill the excavation that had to be done to give the repair crew access to the break.

The water main broke just west of the Middle School on a section of Leonard Drive that parallels Interstate 880. A Caltrans worker said some water cascaded down the embankment toward the freeway but that it stopped short of the roadway itself. 

A water district spokeswoman said no home customers lost water as a result of the break because most residential areas have more than one source of supply.

The pipe in question was a concrete-asbestos conduit that the water district commonly installed from the 1940s to 1980s, said EBMUD spokeswoman Andrea Pook.

She said the district routinely monitors water quality and has never detected asbestos. Nevertheless, EBMUD now installs steel or PVC water lines, she said.

San Leandro resident Avelino Cunha, who lives near the scene of Wednesday's incident where Sundberg Avenue meets Williams Street, said he saw no disruption as a result of the break.

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