Saturday, September 20, 2014

Where Did All The Water Go

During the debate on the need to increase water department revenue and quotes from a paid consultant about how to do so, I heard not one word about about the 130 million gallon gorilla in the closet.

Yes I30 million gallons of treated water per year has gone missing. This loss is equal to a football field sized pool 30 feet deep.























Some leakage is to be expected but In my uneducated opinion a 24% loss rate is more than just excessive.
a. The loss represents thousands of dollars per year in wasted treatment costs. The market value is over $700,000.
b. This information needs to be confirmed and if it is found to be valid, action should be taken as outlined in the included internet link.

We are actually wasting 162 thousand pounds of lime, 71 thousand pounds of alum, 24 thousand pounds of CO2 and ten thousand pounds of other chemicals including, charcoal, phosphate and chlorine into this lost asset. 7 million gallons of treated water used in the treatment process is also lost. We might as well be taking the material directly to the landfill. Shouldn’t this gross waste be pursued as ardently as seeking new revenue?

I do hope that the Fife Ave. work will help to reduce a little of the loss but I wonder what took us so long.

Paul Hunter budhunter@frontier.com

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