Kensington residents fed up with water main that's constantly breaking

KENSINGTON, Calif. (KGO) -- Residents in a Kensington neighborhood are fed up with a water main that's constantly breaking. It's the pipe's third break in seven years.

It's located on Arlington Avenue and on Sunday, it once again flooded homes.

East Bay MUD crews have been there since late Sunday afternoon, sending water to at least four homes.

Gushing water arrives in an instant, coming from a broken 9-inch cast iron pipe installed 71 years ago.

For at least one hour, the section of Arlington Avenue looked more like a river. The water made its way down the block and onto several properties.

"It was extremely shocking. I never thought so much water could suddenly come cascading down the hill all at once," homeowner Giovanni Ferrari said.

Ferrari got the worst of it -- his entire house was flooded. The water even seeped through his light fixtures.

Other homeowners saw water entering their crawl spaces and making a muddy mess of their yards.

They say this is the third time the main has ruptured in seven years.

Firefighters say the nearby Hayward Fault may be a factor. "There's a lot of ground movement. A number of these homes, the dirt shifts on it and so the water mains, a lot of these have been in the ground for a long time," El Cerrito Fire Dept.'s Batt. Chief Michael Pigon said.

East Bay MUD says because of that ground movement, some pipes in Kensington are monitored with acoustic devices designed to detect leaks.

It's unclear though if that technology was used here.

Nevertheless, crews are currently replacing about 10 miles of pipe per year, with the goal of quadrupling that over the next several years.

None of which can come soon enough for this neighborhood.

"See if they can really do what needs to be done to stop it happening again," Ferrari said.

Until then, homeowners will be documenting the damage and filing claims.

They are counting on East Bay MUD to reimburse them as they've done in the past.