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THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Vehicles are inundated in several feet of water in a parking structure on the UCLA campus a er flooding from a broken 30-inch water main under nearby Sunset Boulevard inundated a large area of the campus in the Westwood section of Los Angeles on Tuesday. TheAssociatedPress LOSANGELES Therupture of a nearly century-old water main that ripped a 15-foot hole through Sunset Boule- vard and turned a swath of the University of California, Los Angeles into a mucky mess points to the risks and expense many cities face with miles of water lines in- stalled generations ago. The flooding sent more than 20 million gallons of water cascading from a wa- ter main in the midst of Cal- ifornia's worst drought in decades and as tough new state fines took effect for residents who waste water by hosing down driveways or using a hose without a nozzle to wash their car. Much of the piping that carries drinking water in the country dates to the first half of the 20th cen- tury, with some installed before Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. Age inevitably takes a toll. There are 240,000 breaks a year, according to the Na- tional Association of Water Companies, a problem com- pounded by stress from an increasing population and budget crunches that slow the pace of replacement. "Much of our drink- ing water infrastructure is nearing the end of its useful life," the American Society of Civil Engineers said in a report last year, noting that the cost of replacing pipes in coming decades could ex- ceed $1 trillion. The association of water companies says nearly half of the pipes in the U.S. are in poor shape, and the av- erage age of a broken water main is 47 years. In Los An- geles, a million feet of pip- ing has been delivering wa- ter for at least 100 years. When taps are running and swimming pools are brimming, no one pays at- tention to water lines, typi- cally invisible underground. But the country has reached a point where vast lengths of pipearewearingoutatabout thesametime,saidGregKail of the nonprofit American Water Works Association. "Water pipes last a long, long time but they don't last forever," he said. "There is a lot of pipe in the ground and there is an enormous expense, collectively, in re- placing it." The 30-inch pipe that burst Tuesday near UCLA shot a 30-foot geyser into the air that sent water down storm drains and onto cam- pus. The pipe was still gush- ing 1,000 gallons a minute Wednesday and officials said repairs could take days. At its peak, water was gushing out of the break in the riveted steep pipe at a rate of 75,000 gallons a minute. The amount of wa- ter spilled could serve more than 100,000 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers for a day. The pipe had been worked on before. While the cause of the break re- mained under investiga- tion, Mike Miller, a district superintendent for the city Department of Water and Power, said the crack oc- curred near a connection where the 93-year-old wa- ter main joined a pipe in- stalled in 1956. The pipe must be dry for repair work to begin, but on Wednesday leaky valves above the break allowed wa- ter to continue seeping in. Shutting off valves and pipes creates the risk of more rup- tures in the 7,200-mile sys- tem, especially on hilly ar- eas in and around campus. The reputation of Los Angeles for producing the next new things in style and culture doesn't extend to its creaky infrastructure. The city is decades behind in repairs to streets and some of its water lines have been around so long William Mulholland could have seen them going in. 20milliongallons dumped on UCLA WATER MAIN BREAK The Associated Press YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK Fire crews strengthened old containment lines on Wednesday, as they tried to keep a blaze in Yosemite National Park away from a grove of treasured giant se- quoia trees. The fire was about 10 miles away from Merced Grove, park spokesman Scott Gediman said. "If that is real active, it could go to the Merced Grove," he said. "But we're not looking at an imminent threat right now." Merced Grove is among three stands of giant se- quoias in the park. The towering trees grow only on the western slopes of the Sierra Nevada and are among the largest and old- est living things on Earth. They can live for longer than 3,000 years and can resist fire. Gediman said with the exception of some smoke in Yosemite valley, the park itself was not affected and remained open. The fire was threatening about 50 homes, which re- mained under evacuation orders. It has destroyed a home and a duplex and burned through more than 5 square miles since it be- gan on Saturday. It was 34 percent contained. Fire crews also were bat- tling a blaze in the Sierra National Forest about 60 miles northeast of Fresno that grew substantially late Tuesday and had spread across nearly 9 square miles. It was threatening about 20 homes, though they were not under man- datory evacuation or- ders, said Anne Grandy, a spokeswoman for the park. Meanwhile, crews were wrapping up a fire about 100 miles northwest of the Yosemite blaze in the Si- erra Nevada foothills east of Sacramento. The fire was 90 percent contained on Wednesday morning. It has charred more than 6 square miles and destroyed 19 homes and 47 outbuildings. More than 400 homes were evacuated at one point, but all the residents have since been allowed to return home, state fire Bat- talion Chief Scott McLean said. In neighboring Ore- gon, a firefighter who had been working on a 100-acre blaze in the southern Cas- cade Range died in a fall while on his break. Author- ities say he apparently lost his balance climbing over a rock and fell backward over a downed log, break- ing his back. In Washington state, of- ficials were pleading with the public to stop dona- tions for wildfire victims after community organi- zations were flooded with items. The largest wild- fire in the state's history burned hundreds of homes and scorched hundreds of square miles. CONTAINMENT LINES Crews keep Yosemite fire from spreading to sequoias AL GOLUB — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A burned home and pickup truck lie in the Foresta community in Yosemite National Park in California on Tuesday. The Associated Press RICHMOND Leaders of a San Francisco Bay Area city approved a $1 billion upgrade of Chevron's trou- bled 1960s-era oil refinery, the largest in Northern Cal- ifornia, after the company agreed to safety and pip- ing upgrades and greater community investment, a newspaper reported. The Richmond City Council's 5-0 vote for the overhaul came Tuesday night after it listened to more than 70 people who had signed up to speak about the project, the Con- tra Costa Times reported. The late changes ham- mered out by Chevron and city staff included $90 mil- lion in community invest- ments — up from the com- pany's earlier commitment of $60 million — and safety improvements such as pip- ing upgrades and more sensors and air monitors. "It became clear we would need to do this," re- finery General Manager Kory Judd said of the con- cessions. "We knew the city and the community would hold us to a higher stan- dard, (but) this puts a sig- nificant constraint on our operations." The refinery complex in this industrial, working- class city has weathered a series of toxic releases and other accidents over the years, environmental offi- cials say, including a pol- lutant-laced 2012 fire that forced 15,000 Bay Area res- idents to seek treatment for breathing problems. Chevron sought approval for technological upgrades that would allow the refin- ery to process higher-sul- fur crude oil, among other changes. Oil company of- ficials earlier this month agreed to a plan backed by state Attorney General Ka- mala Harris that would cap the plant's greenhouse-gas emissions and reduce levels of sulfur processing as part of the overhaul. But opponents say the project does too little to limit pollution and im- prove safety. Environmen- tal groups and some resi- dents say Richmond bears the brunt of toxic releases by the refinery complex. Richmond has poverty lev- els nearly twice those of the U.S. and California as a whole, and Chevron's taxes make up about a third of the city's budget. Two council members, including Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, abstained from the final vote, accord- ing to the Contra Costa Times. McLaughlin called on Chevron's Judd to do more to reduce emissions. Judd said the company already was going well beyond le- gal requirements. The Chevron refinery was built before the pollu- tion-curbing requirements of the federal government's 1970s Clean Air Act. Chevron still must get a county court to lift a judg- ment halting a previous version of the project be- fore construction can be- gin, the Times reported. SAFETY UPGRADES $1 billion overhaul approved for troubled Chevron refinery Much of the piping that carries drinking water in the country dates to the first half of the 20th century, with some installed before Theodore Roosevelt was in the White House. 750DavidAvenue,RedBluff•527-9193 www.tehamaestates.com SUMMERCOUPONSPECIAL The areas #1 Senior Housing Provider SeniorRetirementApartments findusonFacebook Tehama Estates Provides: •3DeliciousHealthyMealsEachDay • Daily Housekeeping • 24 Hour Staffing, 365 Days of the Year • Utilities Included (except phone & cable) • Transportation • Fun Activities and Events • Starting at only $1600 per month $ 400 off *leaserequired- new residents only Your Monthly Rental Rate For 6 Months* Tehama Estates RUNNINGS ROOFING SheetMetalRoofing ResidentialCommercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane Ownerisonsiteoneveryjob ServingTehamaCounty 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 NoMoney Down! "NoJobTooSteep" " No Job Too Flat" FREE ESTIMATES CA. 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