Unaccounted-For Water By Joe Frazier, Water Circuit Rider
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ou may ask, what is it and how do I reduce it? First of all, it is water that is not being billed for, accounted for or lost. With the shortage of good potable water to drink, we need to make sure that we can account for every drop that we pump. The first step in checking for unaccounted water is to check with your clerk or billing company to see how much water you are billing and compare that against what you are pumping each month. One step in reducing unaccounted-for water is to make sure all meters are registering properly. How can you do that? By having a meter change-out program in place (if possible), testing your meters and making sure all big meters are tested when required. Remember, meters are our cash registers. Secondly, make sure all your meters are reporting in the same quantities, such as gallons or cubic feet. Also, make sure the billing formula is the same across the board, no matter the type of meter used. Just like your fire hydrants, make sure your meters are all the same type in regards to registering in gallons or cubic feet. Another way of keeping track of water that may not be metered is to check with your local fire department. Ask them to keep track of how much water they are using each month for training, fires and filling pools, and then have them turn in their usage each month. In addition, make sure your state highway and county highway departments keep track of water they use for different projects they are involved in and report it to you monthly. This will take some education of these departments to let them know that you need to account for the water being pumped. You Hoosier Pipeline • Spring/Summer 2011
Remember, meters are our cash registers. do not necessarily need to bill these entities for the water they use (system choice), but you do need to know the amount of water used. Also a water audit on your system will check for leaks that may not be coming to the surface. In some of the water audits I’ve been involved in, I have found fire hydrants are a big loser when it comes to water loss. On the average, if I pick up a noise on a hydrant, it takes a 7gpm for our leak detectors to pick it up. You do the math, 7gpm x 60 minutes in a day... that’s a lot of water. The reason for water loss in hydrants is due to not seating completely, not being shut off all the way, or the hydrants have been damaged during flushing or other uses. Remember in the newly written Sanitary Survey Rule passed by IDEM, you are required to keep your unaccountable water loss at no more than 25 percent on an annual average. The Alliance of Indiana Rural Water can help you with your water audits and offers free leak detections.
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