Recent drought and water supply concerns have made water conservation and leakage
control a high priority throughout Texas and the entire Southwest region of the United
States. These concerns have required the City of Fort Worth, Water Department to reexamine
and improve the existing Leakage Control Program and put more emphasis on
the understanding of the Department's non-revenue water.
Due to limitations in manpower, the existing program involved occasional leak survey
activities (as time allowed) using traditional leak sounding equipment, usually after a leak
had surfaced but before it had become a significant water line break. This method was
found to be very time consuming and after the condition had already progressed to the
point of failure. Additionally, the leak detection crew was responsible for pinpointing
difficult leaks that had surfaced. This pinpointing activity, although helpful, was drawing
resources away from the leak survey progress. It had also been determined that this
methodology for detection was reactive and therefore usually had an impact upon
customer service.
In August of 2001, the department invested in a small number (50) of leak noise loggers.
These units have assisted the Field Operations Division in identifying leaks on buried
mains before the leaks have risen to ground surface causing customer concerns and
becoming major repair issues. Approximately one year later the department is adding
another 150 units to increase coverage and response time. Additionally, the department
is currently discussing the possibility of deploying several of these devices in various
sections of the entire distribution network for use on a permanent installation basis.
Several conditions in the distribution system and various issues of the department have
required attention to leakage control. First was non-revenue water, second was customer
service, and finally the development of a more proactive program for anticipating failures
on an aging distribution system. The City of Fort Worth, is addressing this through a
multi-project format within the field operations and engineering divisions. Includes 4 references, tables, figures.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| File Size : | 1
file
, 340 KB |
| Note : | This product is unavailable in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus |
| Number of Pages : | 14 |
| Published : | 06/15/2003 |
