Libby water loss at more than 50 percent

Libby’s municipal water utility is losing more than half of the water processed at the city’s water treatment plant, according to data provided by the city.

During the three-month period of August, September and October 2015, the city billed rate payers for 51,193,804 gallons of water. Data obtained from the water treatment plant shows more than 117 million gallons of processed water flowed into the city’s water system through a metered pipe at the city’s Cedar Street pumping station during the same time period. The actual amount of water loss is higher than those figures indicate, however, because there are two points at which water flows out of the plant and into the city. In addition to the Cedar Street station, there is also a pipe leading into the Cabinet Heights area of the city, which is unmetered.

One year ago, The Western News reported the city was losing roughly 56 percent of the water processed at the plant. During the first 11 months of 2014, the city billed for 191,764,875 gallons of the estimated 430,139,000 gallons of water processed by the plant. At that time, Libby Mayor Doug Roll said the issue of water loss was one “the city had been on top of for quite some time,” and said changes in the city’s water billing would help provide more accurate information.

The change stemmed from a rate change enacted by the Libby City Council in late 2014. Prior to the change, city water users received the first 3,000 gallons of water each month as part of their base service rate. Under the new billing structure, all water used is metered and rate payers pay, in addition to the base rate, $2.96 per 1,000 gallons.

“When we get a few months of billing without the free water, we’ll be able to get a better average number,” Roll said in December 2014.

The “better average number” promised by Roll indicates the city’s water loss was even higher than estimated one year ago.

Based upon the new data and the city’s water billing history, Libby could be losing hundreds of thousands of billable dollars every year, loss that by law must be made up by the utility’s rate payers.

The city billed a total of $440,950.48 during August, September and October 2015 for 51,193,804 gallons of water use in the city, which averages to $.0086 per gallon of water billed. In that same time period, 66,176,196 gallons of water flowed through the Cedar Street station and was not billed by the city. At the same $.0086 average rate, the city could have billed up to $569,115 in additional revenue.

Excluding base rates from the calculations, had the city billed just the use rate of $2.96 per 1,000 gallons for the lost water, 66,176,196 gallons equates to $195,881. Annualized, it represents nearly $800,000 in lost revenue for the city’s water utility.

According to a 2013 joint study by the Environmental Protection Agency, the International Water Works Association and the American Water Works Association, average municipal water loss in America is 16 percent. The study defines loss as essentially any water processed through the system that is not billed to consumers, including “unauthorized consumption (theft), administrative errors, data-handling erros and metering inaccuracies or failures.”

Other avenues of water loss include back-flushing pipes, system tests and unmetered city use for such things as park and cemetery irrigation. Those types of losses, however, should account for much less significant water loss, American Water Works Association communications director Greg Kair said. 

“Utilities should strive to be under 10 percent loss,” he said.