Water Loss Remains Major Problem During California's Record Drought
By Sara Jerome,
@sarmje
Even as conservation takes center stage in California during the drought, water loss from utilities remains a major problem.
Reinhard Sturm, a member of the American Water Works Association Water Loss Control Committee and a consultant to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, explained the dilemma to the Daily Democrat.
"There will always be a minimum amount of leakage," he said. "You can try to get to the technical minimum, but the money has to be available to do that, and it has to come from somewhere."
The result? California utilities are as leaky as companies in any other state.
"Some utilities in the Northern California area had the worst leakage in recent years. The city of Sacramento lost 135 gallons per service connection per day — more than enough daily water for the average Angeleno — according to the California Urban Water Conservation Council's 2012 data, the latest available. Service connections are hookups to either homes or commercial buildings. The statewide average loss per service connection in recent years was 49 gallons," the report said.
"In Davis, a city pool has a leak losing between 6,000 and 7,000 gallons a day. In LA, 20 million gallons gushed down Sunset Boulevard," KFBK recently reported.
Tim Kieser, the Public Works Director for the City of Grass Valley, explained the challenges.
"The earth moving in California causes problems. Traffic above the pipes cause the pipes to flex a little bit and over time a pipe buried on top of a rock will slowly cause that pipe to start to crack and then it starts to leak and then eventually it will break," he said to KFBK.
Grass Valley uses a leak detection system to combat water loss.
"It's sensitive enough that we can detect if their water usage does not shut off some point during the evening. Any house, at least for an hour out of the day, should not be using any water," he said.
According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, California has reported $39 billion in drinking water infrastructure needs over the next two decades.