Leak detection team begins work in selected areas

Leak detection work started yesterday in San Antonio and Koblerville, areas that are receiving 24-hour water supply and where the new water meters have been installed.

The Water Task Force, members of the CUC Leak Detection Team and Water Conservation Team met this week with Hughes Supply, Inc. Utility Service Group, a Seattle-based company, that was awarded the leak detection project, to discuss logistics and areas where the leak detection work will begin.

Hughes project manager Tom Ruppenthal, along with his crew will work with the local utility’s detection team.

“Our work is to go check the water system and listen to every single valve, meter, hydrant and pipes, exposed and underground, and listen to sound of any leak. We have a repair team so once we identified the leaks we will inform WTF which will then approve the repair and our team will repair the leaks,” Ruppenthal explained.

Hughes’s scope of work includes a point-to-point survey and ground microphone survey. The point-to-point survey will be performed in areas not receiving 24-hr water supply. The areas will be pressurized by utility crews and the lines will be purged of as much air as possible, most likely through several different hydrants in each zone or village.

Part of Hughes’ job is to act as a follow-up quality control for the ongoing meter installation project to ensure that no new leaks are created on the service lines that have had new water meters installed.

Hughes will also conduct a ground microphone survey of all transmission and distribution lines using an acoustic amplification device. This will be done to ensure the most comprehensive survey is completed and will increase the likelihood of detecting leaks that were not detected during the point-to-point survey.

Ruppenthal said their leak detection project is expected to be completed by mid- or third week of September, two weeks after the initial 4,000 water meters have been installed.

His team will work on flexible hours especially on busy streets for safety reasons. “Most of the work on these areas will be done at night. In other areas, we might have to work in the morning because leak detection work needs pressure. And a good operating pressure is about 30 psi ” he said.

Ruppenthal suggested initially to begin work behind the meter installation team but because not all of the meters have been installed, the team agreed to work in areas where there are 24-hour water supply.

With the leak detection work commencing, Lt. Gov. Diego T. Benavente who heads the Water Task Force hopes that consumers who are not registered as being connected to the system will be identified and be accounted for.

“The leaks in the distribution system need to be fixed and this is a critical part of this project. This contractor will also help us identify unregistered connections and we want the consumers to be accountable for every single drop of water being used,” Benavente said. (PR)