The Utilities Committee met 10/11/2022. One of the information items they received was the water main break report for August of 2022. Year-to-date water main breaks were up compared to 2021.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) said that the numbers and estimates of water loss were always a little shocking when seen on paper, and he noted that many of the breaks had been caught by residents who had called them in. He asked what the water main break monitoring system looked like. Was the city looking at options to try to catch breaks earlier. Were there new technologies available that might help the city catch breaks earlier.
A staff member responded that the detection technology now was essentially them seeing something, be it residents, the police department, or Utility Director Shaw when he was out jogging.
In addition to people simply seeing something, staff conducted regular testing of fire hydrants. Prior to the cold temperatures, they made sure hydrants were drained so they don’t free. While they did that, they listened to the hydrant. If they heard water running like a leak then they investigated further. They also listened to hydrants when they were doing hydrant flushing.
They did have a correlator that they could use, but that was a manual device and they needed to be there with the machine at a certain location to use it for testing. They usually brought then out if they had an idea that there might be a leak somewhere in a specific area.
In 2023, they planned to include a request in their budget for a contracted leak detection survey. They were hoping to do ¼ to ½ of the city next year. That would help them identify leaks that were not surfacing and catch them sooner.
Alderperson Vered Meltzer (District 2) noted that of all the leaks in the August report, only one of them was estimated to have lasted more than 24 hours. [That was a leak on Marquette Street which was estimated to have lasted for 38 days.] In Aldeperson Meltzer’s estimation based on having seen a lot of water main break reports, the duration of leaks was trending downward significantly.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=997397&GUID=6AB4DBB7-BBAE-4325-A44A-2B2E48ADEA6F
Be the first to reply