What's causing Queens Village pipes to fail?

From the Queens Chronicle:

Gremlins with teeny-tiny drills are burrowing their way underneath Winchester Boulevard in Queens Village and creating pinholes in copper pipes leading from water mains to the houses between Braddock and Hillside avenues.

It’s as good an answer as the ones homeowners on Winchester are getting for why connector pipes are failing at an alarming rate; so often — on multiple occasions for individual homes in some cases — the company that used to insure the pipes has stopped doing so along that part of the street.

Tom Garrett, who has owned his home for 40 years, said pipes began failing in about spring 2015.

“My neighbor had to get his pipes replaced,” he said. “Then a woman down the street. We didn’t think anything of it.”

By the time his pipe had to be replaced for the first time, people were becoming suspicious.

He now estimates that more than 20 replacements have had to take place, including one neighbor who has required it six or seven times.

“Plumbers who’ve been doing the replacements say it’s being caused by electrolysis. Electricity leaking from somewhere causing pinhole leaks in the pipes,” he said.