Finding Failing Infrastructure

Marc Bracken, VP and general manager of Echologics, a Mueller company, explains the technology, benefits, and real-world impact of pipe condition assessment.

Here is a portion of the Water Online Radio interview, conducted live at WEFTEC in New Orleans…

Water Online Radio: Tell us all about Echologics. What do you do and how do you serve your markets?

Marc Bracken: Echologics has changed from a technology company into a full-service pipe condition assessment, water, and non-revenue water solutions company. We do leak detection, pipe condition assessment, and condition assessment of pretty much any metallic – either for sewage main or a water main.

Water Online Radio: I understand you’re doing some work right here in New Orleans.

Marc Bracken: Yeah, and it’s a really good story for both our company and the Sewage and Water Board of New Orleans.

They had the same issue here where they just couldn’t find their leaks. They were losing a huge amount of water, but nobody could find their leaks. So we came in, did a pilot, and were very, very successful. Since that time we’ve found literally hundreds and hundreds of leaks in the city of New Orleans for them.

Water Online Radio: How are you helping your customers deal with aging infrastructure?

Marc Bracken: What Echologics does is we’ve developed proprietary technologies. We’ve got condition assessment technology that’s very, very unique. It’s survey-level based. Essentially what we do is induce acoustic waves into the pipe and, based on the velocity of those acoustic waves, we can tell people exactly how much of their wall thickness is remaining in the pipe. At the same time, we’re doing leak detection.

We can also go in at a higher level. We can look at the non-revenue water levels of a customer and tell them exactly how much water they’re losing. We can even look at their billing records and make sure that they’re getting all of their revenue.

So, we’ve gone from a technology company and are basically coming down now as a non-revenue water company, helping people understand where their water losses are and what the condition of their infrastructure is.

To hear the full interview, click on the Radio Player above.