Digging A Major Non-Revenue Water Risk

Some cities are trying an innovative strategy for addressing water loss, imploring builders to figure out where water lines are located before digging begins.

One approach is to participate in the Call 811 system, a service that helps spread information about the whereabouts of underground water lines. Diggers can call 811 for information about underground pipes, according to KSAT.

“811 ‘Call Before You Dig’ was created to provide you with a nationwide, easily accessible resource when you are digging. Every dig requires a call,” according to the service’s website, which is run by the Common Ground Alliance, a group dedicated to preventing damage to underground infrastructure.

“The One Call Center is supposed to inform companies that plan to dig that they have to contact water utilities directly,” KSAT reported.

The city of Fort Worth, TX, has participated in the calling system since 2009. Water officials “immediately discovered that there was a lot more excavating activity threatening our assets than we knew about,” according to a department spokesperson, per KSAT.

But the financial rationale for participation may not be perfect. San Antonio, TX, for instance, chooses not to participate, since the utility must pay for each call the center receives “plus the cost of manpower to confirm the location of the underground utilities,” according to KSAT.

“We didn’t see it long term as something that was efficient or cost effective for our ratepayers,” said San Antonio Water System (SAWS) spokesperson Anne Hayden, per KSAT.

Yet SAWS “says more frequent water main breaks recently are a symptom of more digging being done around throughout the city, especially when it comes to internet fiber installation,” KSAT reported.

SAWS records “show that Google contractors broke 44 lines between January and November 2016 — almost one per week. SAWS billed the companies for repairs, receiving $134,810 in compensation for 13 line breaks. Twenty-six other breaks totaling $91,255 in damages remain unpaid,” according to Watchdog.org, a nonprofit news site that says it is nonpartisan and devoted to government transparency.

Would San Antonio have saved money if it participated in the 811 system? That’s not clear. KSAT reported:

In 2016, it cost SAWS $794,000 to repair water lines damaged by contractors. “What we charge back against them includes the cost of the water that's lost,” Hayden said. As of mid-February, SAWS had only recouped $274,000, or just over a third, of what was billed to contractors.

For water stakeholders, regulations do not make the “call before you dig approach” as easy as it could be.

“Texas Utilities Code only requires communications and power providers to give the One Call Center the location of their lines. Water utilities are exempt,” KSAT reported.

Some diggers do not take steps to safeguard water lines.

“There's no legal obligation on the excavator's part to seek out any utility operating outside of the 811 system,” according to Doug Meeks with the South Texas Damage Prevention Council, per KSAT.

To read more about how utilities protect their water lines visit Water Online’s Asset Management Solutions Center.