Libby losing millions of gallons of water monthly

More than 80 percent of the water treated by the Libby water plant in March was lost, according to city data. The plant reported processing more than 33 million gallons of water, but only 6,225,141 gallons were actually billed to city water customers.

Municipal water loss is a common issue in cities across the nation. A 2013 study conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency, with support from the International Water Association and the American Water Works Association reported nationwide municipal water loss at 16 percent.

The study defined water loss as any water processed through the water system but not billed to consumers. Areas of loss include water theft, unmetered use by cities or agencies, administrative errors and metering inaccuracies or failures, as well as loss from broken or leaking pipes.

Last year the city adopted a new rate structure, which was supposed to help alleviate some of the data errors by accurately billing for all water use. Before the new rates went into effect, residential water users were given their first 3,000 gallons as part of their base water rate. Under the new structure, every gallon is metered and billing begins with the first drop.

The change, however, has not positively impacted the city’s measured water loss.

Between January and November of last year, the city’s water plant processed 430 million gallons of water and the city billed for slightly 

more than 191 million gallons, roughly 44 percent. In March the city billed for only 18.5 percent of water processed at the plant.

Broken meters account for some of the loss, but city water distribution supervisor Corky Pape said it’s not a significant amount.

“I’ve got the stop-meter list in my truck,” he said. “It has 37 meters that didn’t report water use. That’s one of the lowest numbers we’ve had on this list since I’ve been here.”

Pape said he is unsure of the source or extent of water loss in the city, as the numbers from the water plant aren’t accurate. Libby Mayor Doug Roll agreed with Pape’s assessment.

“They’ve just been guessing,” Roll said.

The city is taking additional steps to determine the extent of the problem, Pape said. A new probe meter has been ordered and will be installed at the pressure reducing station on Cedar Street, directly downhill from the water treatment plant. The new meter will record the exact amount of water pushed from the plant into the city’s distribution system through that station, providing the water department with an accurate picture of the problem.

Pape said he is unsure when the new probe meter will be delivered, but he is planning to install it immediately.

“We need to get accurate numbers,” he said. “We can’t fix problems if we don’t know how bad they are.”

Pape said the new meter will go a long way toward understanding the problem, but won’t provide the full picture because the water plant pushes water to city users through two different pipes.

The majority of city users receive their water from the pipe that runs into the Cedar Street pressure reduction station, which will house the new meter, but users in the Cabinet Heights subdivision near the golf course are fed through a separate pipe. The second pipe does not have a meter, so water going to that section of the city is accounted for only by the city billing system.

Roll said he was less concerned about water loss in that section of the distribution system, as it was built much more recently and the difference in the soil types in that part of town would make a major leak much easier to detect.

“It’s all fairly new in comparison,” Roll said. “The upper part was all built since roughly the 1950s or 1960s.”

Roll said the city also lost a great deal of water in March due to the turbidity problems experienced by the city, which resulted in a boil order on city water. Those issues required the city to back flush pipes, all with treated water.

Roll said the priority now is to determine how much water is actually being lost by the city and then fix those problems. Once the new meter is installed, the amount of water loss can be determined. From there, Roll said, water can be shut off in various zones throughout the city to determine where the loss is taking place.

“The big thing,” Roll said, “is to determine if there’s a loss and where.”