News | April 17, 2009

Echologics Announces Water Pipe Assessment Services

Echologics Engineering, the leading provider of non-intrusive acoustic technology for highly accurate leak detection in water pipe networks, recently launched a unique set of Assessment Services that help Municipal Water Managers save time and money by efficiently determining the actual condition of their pipelines.

Water utilities are facing major costs in maintaining and replacing their transmission and distribution pipe networks. As more and more networks decline each year, these costs are increasing and are expected to peak over the next few years when water pipes installed during the post-war boom begin to reach the end of their service lives.

Traditional methods for the assessment of pipe wall thickness and locating large diameter pipe leaks are based on gaining direct access to the pipe. In many cases pipes cannot be taken out of service, and the cost of inserting a tool inside the pipe or excavating to expose the surface of the pipe is prohibitively expensive…until now.

Researchers at the National Research Council of Canada and Echologics Engineering have developed and patented a new non-destructive test method for water utilities to use in evaluating pipe wall thickness and accurately locating leaks without the need to dig.

"Our new services incorporate major advances in correlation algorithms, sensors and signal conditioning", said Marc Bracken, CEO of Echologics, "and have consistently proven to accurately pinpoint underground leaks within a few feet."

"We knew we had issues with some of our AC and CI pipes and we wanted a method to help us determine which pipes to prioritize for replacement," stated Ed Mitchell, Waterworks Superintendent at Maple Ridge, British Columbia. "We already knew where some pipes were degraded, and wanted to see if we could accurately identify them. With Echologics we were able to determine the extent of the wall thickness deterioration and use that as one of our criteria for replacement. The Echologics approach is a good non-intrusive condition assessment tool."

Successful pilot projects have been conducted with leading Municipal Water networks such as Chicago (IL), Las Vegas (NV), City of London (UK) and many others resulting in significant savings to infrastructure management.

SOURCE: Echologics Engineering