Water and sewer systems built more than a century ago are struggling with storms, heat and drought. The cyberattacks aren’t helping, either.
This July, in the middle of the night during one of Southern California’s 2026 heat waves, a 36-inch utility pipe gave way beneath West Hollywood, sending 17 million gallons of water coursing past the nightclubs of the famed Sunset Strip and opening up a massive sinkhole that flooded nearby homes and garages.
The size of the deluge made national headlines, but it was hardly unprecedented: There were at least five other significant water system leaks around Los Angeles that week, a spate of failures that brought scrutiny of the system’s advanced age. The Sunset water main that ruptured had been installed in 1916.
Meanwhile, municipal water systems in at least a dozen US states, including Minnesota, Michigan and Georgia, reported a very different threat that month. They were targeted in cyberattacks — believed to be the work of Iranian hackers — that disrupted service in several cities, triggering boil-water advisories and fears of more malicious actions. In 2021, hackers gained control of a water system in Oldsmar, Florida, and tried to raise the level of sodium hydroxide — an ingredient in drain cleaner used to control water acidity — in a mass poisoning attempt.
Bloomberg CityLab
By Patrick Sisson
September 10, 2026