The main you see in the picture was encountered during excavation of a leak. It is an abandoned main and it became a conduit for carrying the water down the hill and away from the leak. Any type of abandoned utility line can carry water away from the point of leakage.

 

We once worked in a situation where an abandoned steam line carried the water away from the leak. The steam line had at one time provided heat to commercial buildings in the downtown area of this city. The water leak had caused a moisture saturation problem in the basement of a business, but we located the leak 400’ away.