Conserving water has been a hot topic these past few years, especially in drought-stricken California.
“Non-revenue water” is also becoming a hot topic. As the conservation message is driven home and consumers cut their water use, fee or use revenues to water districts are also reduced. Therefore, it is increasingly important for districts to capture revenue and minimize loss. This is an interesting dilemma: Water districts are essentially charged with the task of reducing their revenue by increasing efficiency. Imagine if McDonalds had the mission of selling fewer hamburgers?
Minimizing water loss becomes even more important in this environment. A concept we will see gaining ground is splitting water districts into district metered areas (DMAs), which involves sub-metering the distribution system for long-term water loss control.
In other words, it’s easier to determine the volume of leakage by measuring the supply into a DMA, and then subtract out the consumption volume, or billed water. The difference is leakage before the meter.
The benefits for DMA programs are below, to name a few:
- Improved level of water loss control
- Districts can deploy leak detection crews strategically
- Legislative requirements for water loss reduction are met
DMAs are only one concept gaining ground in the war against water loss. In the year ahead, look to us here at Water Efficiency to share developments in water audits, leak detection, pressure optimization, and more. We’re looking forward to an even more interesting 2016!
Happy New Year!
