A Call to Action for Non-Revenue Water

A Look at Statewide Efforts to Eliminate the Blind Spot of Water & Revenue Losses

By George Kunkel

It is a highly unfortunate occurrence for many drinking water utilities that a considerable portion of the water that they withdraw from available resources never reaches a customer or is not (fully) billed to return revenue to the utility. Collectively, these losses are defined as non-revenue water (NRW) by the American Water Works Association (AWWA). This condition is exacerbated by the fact that U.S. water utilities have not traditionally audited their supplies sufficiently to know the extent of losses and the costs that they impart to the utility, and ultimately, to their customers. By auditing their supplies and implementing effective new technologies for NRW management, water utilities can save water and energy, recover uncaptured revenue, defer new water source and infrastructure development and become better stewards of one of life’s most precious resources.

The core mission of drinking water utilities in the United States is to treat water to safe drinking water standards and deliver it to customers at sufficient quantity and pressure to meet domestic, commercial and fire protection needs. To help ensure that water utilities provide water of sufficient quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) implements the rules mandated by the Safe Drinking Water Act. These rules apply to all water utilities across the country.