Money is Gone in My Home Town of Aiken, and the Water Main Breaks Keep on Coming

I live in Aiken, South Carolina, where the city spent many millions of dollars that included failed efforts to stop water main breaks, and my city turned down potential grants of up to $1.2 million or more to stop continuing water main breaks in our city - they threw away free money. The mayor falsely claimed that the city was 'addressing' water main breaks, even though breaks occur almost every week. What is going on?

My Most Recent Fight to Stop Water Main Breaks

Where are we to stop Aiken water main breaks? After more than six years of claiming that breaking water mains in Aiken will be controlled, government officials choose to keep on breaking their water system. Following a 2025 City Council Workshop meeting, I sent the following highly critical letter to the Aiken City Council, the Aiken Mayor, the Aiken City Manager, and the Aiken Engineering Director. No responses were received.

The following letter was sent to the Aiken Mayor, all Aiken City Council members, the City Manager, and the Engineering Director.

Aiken water main breaks will continue

Robert A. Leishear, PhD, 2/10/2025

The city of Aiken has thrown away an opportunity to stop our water main breaks and reduce tax burdens and health hazards. I have lost my fight with our city to stop water main breaks. However, the losers in this fight are the residents of Aiken.

The City of Aiken chooses to destroy our water mains, which supply our drinking water, water for businesses, and water to stop fires. Our mains keep on breaking.

I recently met with the Mayor, City Council, and Aiken staff in a Workshop to talk about how we can stop water main breaks. The City Manager stated that half of last year's breaks were caused when contractors broke mains while digging, which certainly sounds like a lot of mistakes. The other 20 breaks were caused by water hammers, which are caused by operations of pumps, fire hydrants and valves.

As a world-class expert in water hammers, I have repeatedly offered my services, and services of supporting contractors, without cost to Aiken by pursuing government grants. Aiken declined my most recent offer, stating that the problem is being addressed - nonsense. Our mains keep on breaking, will continue to break, [will] threaten our health, and the number of breaks will increase as we destroy our water system.

For over six years, Aiken staff have been waiting to see if they will fix our water main breaks. Aiken has failed to stop our water main breaks - just read the papers. Aiken spent untold millions of dollars on their water system, and water mains are still breaking.

In our meeting, false information was provided by city staff to the Mayor and Council to dissuade support for my efforts to stop breaking water mains. For example, the City Manager, made incorrect accusations when he said that I claimed that I could stop 'all' water main breaks and incorrectly claimed that tree roots are a primary cause of breaks. My offer to provide a second Workshop presentation to correct falsehoods was refused.

That is, a free consultant with unparalleled qualifications to stop water main breaks was turned down. What is going on in the backrooms of Aiken government? Our water main breaks can be stopped.

I did not make these statements lightly. Water hammers break water mains, and my expertise in water hammers is founded in more than 20,000 hours of volunteer research at a personal cost of more than $200,000. I wrote 55 publications related to water main breaks, earned master's and doctoral degrees in Mechanical Engineering, a master's degree in Nuclear Engineering, a Fellow award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, a Mensa award for intellectual achievement, and certifications for corrosion and corrosion control. In fact, I opened my business to prevent water hammer disasters in different industries, which include the water industry.

Again, what is going on in Aiken government? We can stop water main breaks.

Links to mentioned presentations in this letter are available: "Aiken water main breaks can be stopped", Click Here, and "Aiken water main breaks can be stopped, Part II", click here.

A Summary of Waste, Fraud and Abuse

• The above letter documents waste in that Aiken refuses to stop water main breaks as money continues to be spent to not solve the city water main break problem.
• The above letter seems to document fraud since the Mayor of Aiken claimed that 'I have spoken to several council members and everyone seems to be on the same page that we are confident that the city engineers are addressing the water hammering issue at this time.' While they may be 'on the same page', their opinions falsely conclude that water main breaks due to water hammers are under control - the mains keep breaking. Per Merriam Webster, fraud is defined as 'deceit, trickery; specifically: intentional perversion of truth in order to induce another to part with something of value or to surrender a legal right'. Also, incorrect statements were provided to this City Council Workshop, and I was refused the opportunity to defend my character and prove that other false statements were made in that meeting. I believe that such actions were supported by city government for 'intentional perversion of truth', and that these actions endanger our drinking water safety and burden citizens with unnecessary taxes. I believe that a decision to continue water main breaks in Aiken is fundamentally flawed and as such appears to be fraudulent. Claiming that Aiken water main breaks are under control has not been 'truth' for years and is still not 'truth'.
• The above letter documents abuse of government power by refusing to allow me to present the facts to counter the false statements by city staff in their efforts that controlled millions of misspent dollars, i.e., water main breaks keep on coming.

A Brief History of My Fight to Stop Aiken Water Main Breaks

Where have we been to stop Aiken water main breaks? Prior to this most recent 2025 City Council Workshop meeting, I first met with the City Manager and Engineering Director for Aiken in December, 2018. They informed me that they would wait and see how their recent $16 million budget to fix the water system corrected water main breaks. They failed, and they continue to fail, even though improvements have apparently reduced city-wide breaks in the past year from an average of 57 to about 40 breaks per year.

As water mains kept on breaking, I wrote Letters to the Editor of the Aiken Standard. In part, those Letters stated that:

Letter: Water main breaks can be stopped, May, 2019 (click here)

Water main breaks continue in Aiken as they do throughout every city in the U.S. and other countries.' 'The city had $16 million to fix the problem, but water main breaks continue.' 'I offered to help them stop the problem, I met with the Aiken City Manager' [and Engineering Director, but after our meeting he and the Mayor both ignored] 'my repeated emails to solve this problem. Their failure to respond is understandable, since answering my emails could imply their liability for misdirecting taxpayer's money.

Letter: City work to stop water main breaks, April, 2021 (click here)

We could have stopped Aiken water main breaks; Aiken chooses to have water main breaks. The Aiken City government is destroying our water main system,

'Water main breaks occur over and over, again and again.' 'I was told water main breaks have markedly decreased, but from local experience I know that they continue to occur.'

Letter: City must address water main breaks, August, 2022 (click here)

Our city continues to destroy our water supply system, and we pay the taxes for them to do so.

Letter: No reason for water mains to break, January, 2023 (click here)

Late Christmas evening, my family received a Code Red Emergency call that Aiken water mains broke. Our water supplies are again in danger of infecting our drinking water with listeria and E. Coli. When will these water main breaks stop?

Letter: Water main breaks can be prevented, March, 2023 (click here)

Following a 2023 meeting with the Aiken City Manager, Mayor, and Engineering Director, they refused to answer any email correspondence, and I then published this statement.

'[The Mayor] and his staff have chosen to let the Aiken water main breaks continue.' 'We could have stopped Aiken water main breaks; Aiken chooses to have water main breaks.'

Letter: Workshop aims to stop water main breaks, January, 2025 (click here)

A City Council Workshop was held, and as noted that Workshop failed to accomplish the prevention of Aiken water main breaks. In my opinion, the Mayor and City Council provided a severe disservice to city residents by ignoring the facts that '[by] stopping breaks in Aiken, we can begin the process of stopping a multi-billion dollar per year tax burden on U.S. citizens, where 250,000 U.S. water mains break every year to affect public health. If you are food poisoned, there is an excellent probability that the illness came through underground water main cracks. These breaks can be stopped.'

My Fight To Stop Water Main Breaks Goes On

Where are we going to stop Aiken water main breaks? The previous Mayor and the recently elected new Mayor of Aiken and their staff repeatedly choose to let Aiken water main breaks keep on coming. Although I have lost this battle to do the right thing and stop water main breaks in my home town, I continue my fight to stop health hazards, stop coverups, and stop multi-billion dollar tax losses every year ("Never give an inch - When will we stop U.S. water main breaks?").

When I started this work years ago, I thought that the obstacle to saving lives, property, and the environment was the fact that people just do not like new ideas. While we do not like change, I have stood eye to eye with many people, and discussed concerns through email and the Press.

I have learned that money is the issue.

City planners and managers prefer to let water mains break rather than invest money to prevent breaks. ("The Winter Flood of Water-Main Breaks Can Be Stopped - Water Main Breaks in Jackson and Every Other City Can be Stopped").

There is a phenomenal amount of money being invested throughout our country that allows water main breaks to keep on going. Recent estimates vary between $15 billion and $ 60 billion per year in the U.S., as part of this worldwide disaster.

I plan to include the Op Ed information presented here in my new book, which is contracted and scheduled for publication this year ("Book Publisher Wanted for a New Book, "Industrial Murder for Profit", 2025). Aiken is not only a microcosm of the trillion dollars in expected U.S. water main break destruction over the next 25 years, but Aiken is representative of the many cities that refuse to stop water main breaks to cut costs, stop disease and save lives.

As I protest over and over, we can stop water main breaks.

Addendum, 2/16/2025

Immediately after this Op Ed was published, the following message was sent to the Aiken Mayor and CC'ed to each City Council member, the City Manager and the Engineering Director.

To: The Mayor of Aiken;

Aiken water main breaks could have been stopped

In my opinion, you unfortunately choose to break our water mains and risk our health. I have talked about your decision that affects the people of Aiken in my latest Op Ed, titled "Money is Gone in My Home Town of Aiken, and the Water Main Breaks Keep on Coming".

(Article changed on Feb 16, 2025 at 7:09 PM EST)