PIPE DOWN.

• Author: Tosczak, Mark
• Position: STATEWIDE: West

A water main breaks somewhere in the United States every two minutes, according to the U.S. Water Alliance, a nonprofit advocacy group for managing water resources. That's because in many places, America's water and sewer infrastructure is in dire need of repair or replacement--in some large northeastern cities, some pipes, manholes and other structures date to before World War II.

"In the United States, there [are] 1.6 million miles of buried water and wastewater pipelines and associated manholes," says Tom Barr, chief executive officer of the newly formed Ashevillebased Infrastructure Services Group. "The infrastructure is old, it's aged and it requires constant repair."

In March, ISG announced it had bought two companies, Vermont-based Green Mountain Pipeline Services and Pennsylvania's Mr. Rehab Sewer System Rehabilitation, that do that kind of repair work. Combined, the two firms have about $32 million in annual revenue.

They are the first of a series of planned acquisitions of water and sewer service companies. ISG is backed by Dallas-based Juniper Capital Management and ORIX Mezzanine & Private Equity and Barr's own Lions Wing Capital Partners.

Barr, who has decades of experience in the water infrastructure and environmental lab industries, has done this before. From 1996 to 2007, he was CEO of TestAmerica Laboratories, an environmental-testing company he grew from $250,000 to $350 million in revenue through acquisitions and mergers.

His investment thesis hinges in part on the notion...