Leak detection-case histories

The drought of the 1970s that forced water conservation awakened the water industry to the benefits of leak detection. The fuel drought of the 1980s and the resultant high cost of energy has brought about a new era for management with productivity being the key word. There is an opportunity to hold the operating costs of power and chemicals in check by means of leak detection and repair. Many water utilities have unaccounted-for water of more than 30 percent. Well-managed utilities report losses of half this amount. Consultants in the field of leak detection can help control these losses. On Jun. 12, 1975, AWWA authorized a committee on leak detection "to assess the state of the art of leak detection and to promote through whatever means available the development of feasible means of leak detection." Leak detection and the associated concept of unaccounted-for water is not new to AWWA. Leak detection was addressed at AWWA's first national convention in 1881 and was discussed in articles in the first issue of JOURNAL AWWA. In this country and in Great Britain the subject has been discussed for 100 years. The consulting engineer Louis E. Howson* wrote in Journal AWWA in September 1928: "The problem of reducing the quantity of unaccountedfor water is like that of caring for the poor, with us always. Well over 100 years ago, one of our pioneer eastern water works systems, in attempting to reduce