Administrator Richard Downey and Department of Public Works (DPW) Director Jordan Jolma both began work with the Town of Grand Chute in 2024. A challenge they both received upon beginning their jobs was to find and significantly reduce or eliminate the large amount of municipal water loss the Town has been experiencing annually.
Part 1 of this article was published in the April Issue of the Grand Chute Gazette.
The Search for Real Water Losses
The focus of our Grand Chute water loss discovery efforts over the years has been on finding and repairing system leaks. Despite some intensive search efforts, over-time, which included bringing in outside companies specializing in leak detection, no major sources of leaks have yet been found.
Town Administrator Richard Downey believes that our real water losses are due to multiple factors, including soil composition and the age of pipes, which he perceives to be major factors. Acidic soils are corrosive to older metallic water pipes. In 2020, infrastructure consultant AECOM was retained to perform a ‘Non-Revenue Water Study.’ Its report noted, “Based on the overall high nighttime (system water) demand….it is AECOM’s opinion that a significant amount of the NRW (non-revenue water) water (loss) may be leakage.” Areas of high nighttime demand coincide with areas of highest percentage of ductile iron water mains.
Todd Prahl, who served as Grand Chute Public Works Superintendent from 1993 until his retirement in 2022, stated that system testing led staff to prioritize efforts on searching for leaks in the south and southwest areas of town. In 2021, leak detection efforts conducted on approximately 17% of the Town water lines identified and corrected 9 leaks.
Former Superintendent Prahl shared that a major change to our water system occurred when the Town Hall water tower was built. The tower, which holds 1,000,000 gallons of water, is 198 feet high. That height is 35 feet higher than the original Grand Chute water tower which was located at Misty Lane. The original Misty Lane water tower was then razed and a new tower erected, in order to match the height of the new Town Hall tower. If the towers would be different heights, excessive pressure from the taller tower would have resulted in system overflow at the shorter tower. However, by adding a second tower and increasing the height of the towers to help ensure adequate system water pressure for our growing community, more pressure was placed on system piping and connecting joints. Prahl believes the additional system pressure exposed weak elements of the system, which later began to fail.
In addition to finding and fixing leaking pipes, older metal piping is being systematically replaced over time with new plastic piping as roads are rebuilt. However, according to Todd Weich, who serves as the Municipal Circuit Rider for eastern Wisconsin with the Wisconsin Rural Water Association (WRWA), even newer plastic piping can be a source of leakage due to the failure of pipe junction gaskets, and pipe fittings that lose their seal over time for various other reasons.
According to Weich, although leak detection technology is improving, leaks remain very difficult to find with currently available technology. He stated that about six years ago the City of Green Bay even elected to try satellite system technology in an effort to find leaks in their municipal system.
The Search for Apparent Water Losses
Because ongoing efforts to find system leaks have not significantly reduced the amount of water loss over time, Todd Weich believes apparent loss is also a contributing factor to our water loss experience. Apparent losses may be occurring due to metering issues, system maintenance and testing procedures, and billing errors.
Concerning meter issues, Weich recommended looking at large meter installations first, as they offer the most potential to find significant savings. The master meters used to record water purchases from the City of Appleton are required to be checked for accuracy every two years. However, Weich recommended that these large, important meters should be checked every six months. In other municipalities, he has found that master meters “are always off” when checked for accuracy. Therefore, checking them every six months is well-worth the approximate $150 – $200 cost of recalibrating them each time. Weich also recommended frequently checking the accuracy of large commercial meters.
Weich also expressed that accuracy is important when estimating unmetered water usage associated with fire suppression system testing and fire hydrant flushing. It is his belief that these amounts may often be underestimated. Similarly, fire suppression testing performed at private businesses is not metered, and is also a possible source of error when estimating water system losses.
Based on his experience helping municipalities find lost water, Weich also suggested checking for formula errors in billing system software, such as having a decimal point coded in a wrong column. He has also experienced instances where software system updates involving billing systems were responsible for creating errors within the billing systems.
Efforts to Reduce Real and Apparent Water Loss
At this point, Administrator Downey stated that “No particular water loss causes have been ruled out.” The 2025 Sanitary District #1 budget, which involves our municipal water system, includes objectives to: 1) perform a leak detection survey on 100 percent of the public water distribution system annually; 2) continue to monitor water loss numbers with a concentration on leak detection in the private water main systems and services; and 3) complete an evaluation of pumping data from the SCADA (Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition) system to ensure water loss is not occurring due to metering inaccuracies. The SCADA system involves the sensors and actuators used to collect and analyze data in real time.
The Town has also just begun a four-year plan to replace all 5/8-inch water meters due to age and problems with radio transmission battery failures. More than 8,300 5/8-inch meters are installed in the Town. They serve residences, and also a majority of commercial properties. Our current Sensus iPerl brand meters will be replaced with Kamstrup iQ 2200 meters, which have the ability to detect and record much lower flow rates of water than the Sensus meters. With lower flow detection capabilities, DPW Director Jordan Jolma and Deputy Director Greg Koch estimate that over the expected 20-year life span of the Kamstrup meters, that the Town will realize almost $3.0 million of additional water sales revenue.
Additionally, the Kamstrup meters feature advanced acoustic leak detection capabilities. The meter software will notify DPW staff of potential leaks based on changes in acoustic noise levels detected by the meters.
We wish Administrator Downey, Director Jolma and the DPW staff well as they work to find the sources, and implement solutions, to our Grand Chute water loss issue.
Jeff Ings Grand Chute
