The ruptured water main that plunged Wilmington and parts of New Hanover County into a water crisis last weekend was scheduled to be abandoned later this year, Cape Fear Public Utility Authority officials said at a Monday news conference.

Preliminary assessments suggest fatigue, caused by old age, was the culprit in Friday’s main rupture outside of Wilmington’s Sweeney Water Treatment Plant, but Mike Richardson, the plant’s drinking water superintendant, said a more definitive conclusion is pending.

The two-foot-wide, cast iron main was estimated to be 90 years old. Richardson said the authority planned to replace and abandon the main this fall as part of its ongoing project to upgrade water and sewer infrastructure. "It just didn’t quite make it," he said.

To prevent such water crises, work has been underway to replace old mains or transmission lines—many of which are between 60 and 90 years old—near Sweeney and the surrounding areas, Richardson said.

Yet utility authority officials said they were not speeding up infrastructure projects in the wake of Friday’s main rupture, which affected nearly 100,000 people during a three-day period, including businesses, residents and government offices.

"These things occur," Richardson said. "If I had a crystal ball I’d be able to know which ones and replace all of them at one time but we have to deal with them as they come up," he added, referring to the replacement schedule.

The rupture threatens to feed criticism of a utility that has been a point of controversy since its 2008 inception, first over billing errors and then rising water and sewer rates.

Responding to public criticisms, Gene Renzaglia, the utility authority board chairman, said the organization had been proactive in addressing the issues it inherited from Wilmington and New Hanover County. "At this point in time, the board stands behind the organization and the people who are running it," he said.

Utility authority officials on Monday chronicled the weekend’s events a day after water use conditions resumed normalcy, with mandatory conservation measures and a boil advisory lifted for the first time since Friday.

Friday’s 10:15 a.m. rupture dropped water pressure throughout the service area and prompted both a precautionary boil water advisory and restrictions on all nonessential uses.

Construction on Sweeney coupled with amplified demand caused by a recent heat wave had lowered water supplies, Richardson said. To supplement supply after the rupture, the utility authority brought on line four emergency wells and made two interconnections with the groundwater system.

"We feel like we responded to it as quickly as possible," Richardson said. "With anything, you learn."

No fines were levied on people found in violation of water restrictions, even though the authority notified its customers on Friday that violations potentially carried a $500 penalty.

"We had really no intention to truly fine people," said Christene Mitchell, a utility authority project manager. "We just wanted people to understand how truly serious this was."

The utility authority does not provide water service to Wrightsville, Carolina or Kure beaches.

Water Main Break Timeline