The Economics of Leak Detection

Taking the Guesswork Out of Water Loss Management with Auditing & Analysis

By Lucy Andrews, Reinhard Sturm & Kris Williams

The decision to deploy leak detection crews can be difficult. Utility managers often ask, “Will we find enough leakage to justify the expense of hiring leak detection technicians?” Answering this question doesn’t take cloud-based-solutions or machine learning, it just requires a little careful reasoning. American water utilities frequently lose more than 50 gallons per service connection per day to leakage based on self-reported water audits submitted to state agencies (source: WRF project 4639). This rate of loss may or may not justify deploying leak detection crews depending on the condition of the infrastructure and the miles of mains that must be surveyed.