Cavanaugh/WSO Team Selected To Provide Water Loss Technical Assistance To California Urban Water Systems

Cavanaugh is pleased to announce that it has been selected for Phase 1 of a Water Loss Technical Assistance Program (Water Loss TAP) contract from the California-Nevada Section of the American Water Works Association (CA-NV AWWA). The $3.2M dollar program will run approximately 2 years and will train and assist California’s urban water agencies to produce validated system water audits, assisting the CA-NV AWWA with its broader initiative of combating water loss through the Water Loss Control Collaborative. Cavanaugh has partnered with Water Systems Optimization (WSO) for this groundbreaking program to serve as the Program Management Team.

“California takes center stage on supply side water conservation, and we are excited to be leading this program which will be critical for the industry,” said Steve Cavanaugh, P.E., CEO of Cavanaugh.

The work now underway is part of the broader Collaborative that supports systems employing best-practices for water loss management in California. The Water Loss TAP will specifically aid systems in complying with the provisions of California Senate Bill 555, which established the requirement that each urban retail water supplier, on or before October 1, 2017 (and annually thereafter) submit a completed and validated water loss audit report to the California Department of Water Resources.

“Ultimately we want all utilities to develop strong water loss control programs which regularly and accurately assess the opportunities to reduce losses. Having a validated audit is a crucial first step,” said Sue Mosburg, Chair of the CA-NV Water Loss Control Committee, immediate past chair of CA-NV AWWA, and Program Manager at Sweetwater Authority.

CA-NV AWWA received a grant through the California State Water Resources Control Board to provide a comprehensive program of training, technical assistance, and water audit validation for the roughly 450 largest California water systems. Through the Water Loss TAP these systems will attain a base level of competency with the water balance and audit concepts, the free AWWA Water Audit Software (on which SB 555 is based), and the process of water audit data validation. The Water Loss TAP will be funded from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Technical Assistance set-aside.

CA-NV AWWA is the largest Section of the American Water Works Association, the professional organization of the drinking water industry. See the Section’s full press release here. The Water Loss TAP is the largest program of its kind in existence. For more information, visit www.waterlosscontrolcollaborative.org and www.cavanaughsolutions.com.