The last few weeks it seems like D.C. and the surrounding areas have been riddled with water main breaks that snarl traffic and leave area residents without water. It’s not your imagination either, there have been more water main breaks in the past month or so. In fact Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission, which serves residents in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties in Maryland, has responded to almost 300 water main breaks in the last two weeks. It turns out that cold weather makes water main breaks more likely as the pipes carry warm water, surrounded by cold dirt, and try to expand – causing a pipe to break.

And D.C.’s old pipes make it worse. Many pipes are made of cast iron from before the Civil War. D.C. Water is working to replace the oldest pipes with more flexible iron pipes. They are adding 11 miles of new pipes a year, triple the rate they used to do.

In the meantime, just expect more water main breaks until the warm weather is back again. It is D.C. after all, we should be good to go in March.