EDITORIAL PRICE OF NEGLECT BURST PIPES ARE TESTAMENT TO DECADES OF DWP WASTE.

TECHNICALLY, the flood that erupted on Cantara Street in Sun Valley Thursday night -- ripping a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-deep sinkhole -- was the result of abnormally cold weather. But there's an underlying cause -- an abnormally bad city government.

The water that gushed onto Cantara Street came from the rupture in a 32-inch riveted steel pipe installed all the way back in 1917.

That's L.A.'s infrastructure for you.

The Department of Water and Power estimates that about half of the city's trunk lines -- the large pipes that carry water to the smaller main lines that serve our homes -- were installed before 1940. It would take 10 years and $2.7 billion, officials say, just to replace half of the aging lines.

And because so many pipes have been so neglected for so long, there's at least a five-year backup to repair even some of the most corroded.

The result is that when it gets cold in L.A., water freezes and pipes rupture. There have been more than 200 leaks reported during this latest cold spell.

Now, remember when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power funded needless promotions with the Dodgers? Or when it ran a bogus ``green power'' program that included a swank party for city bigwigs? Or how about when it dumped millions into frivolous ``investments'' in electric scooters and leaf blowers?

All the while, the DWP has, for decades, so pampered its work force that its employees are the best paid of all L.A. city workers -- the highest paid municipal workers in the country. And it's poured massive infusions of cash into the city's general fund to help our politicians cover their own reckless spending.

For decades the DWP has spent money on just about everything except one of its most critical functions -- ensuring the safe transmission of our water.

Over the last few years, the department has jacked up water rates to help make up for the decades of neglect. We can only hope that this time we actually get what we pay for.