The U-Ts recent front-page story about water-main breaks Water Main Breaks Plague City, Feb.

. 27 warrants a response to set the record straight. Buried in the 19th paragraph beneath the breathless reporting about tens of thousands of leaks that have cost the city 360 million gallons of water and at least $10 million in settlement claims is this key fact: The citys water-loss rate is 9.3%, compared to the national average of 14%. Thats the real story San Diego is outperforming the average American city by a healthy margin in limiting water loss. Indeed, by one statistical measure, a city of San Diegos size typically has ten times the 80 water-main breaks we had in 2011. Water is a precious resource in San Diego and the city takes every water leak seriously, which is why the Public Utilities Department has spent tens of millions of dollars replacing hundreds of miles of aging water pipes. In fact, the city is outpacing the targets set by the state Department of Public Health for replacing our older cast-iron mains. That said, no city in the history of modern civilization has been able to run a water-delivery system without water-main breaks. Like crime and rush-hour traffic, these breaks are an unfortunate but inevitable part of urban life, especially in a city with 3,200 miles of water lines. The key is to keep the numbers as low as possible. Announcing that San Diegos water mains are breaking at a pace of more than 100 a year which, according to the U-T headline, amounts to a plague -- tells the reader nothing whatsoever if you dont put those figures in the proper context. Some context: National research shows that mains break somewhere in the area of 25-27 times per hundred miles annually, according to Greg Kail of the American Water Works Association. By this statistical measure, San Diego should have about 800 water-main breaks a year. Instead, weve averaged 105 a year over the past eight years roughly an eighth that amount. On its web site, the federal Environmental Protection Agency reports on average, 14 percent of the water treated by water systems is lost to leaks. Some water systems have reported water losses exceeding 60 percent. San Diegos record is particularly impressive given the citys topography, a sprawling landscape of canyons and valleys that poses a unique challenge in terms of regulating water pressure. There are a whopping 130 different pressure zones in the city of San Diego. Its not unusual for a city with a flat topography to have fewer than 10 pressure zones. Officials at the citys Public Utilities Department made this point to the reporters; the reporters failed to include it in the story.