I should not have said we wouldn't have enough revenue to run the
department. I was just being amusing, but not so amusing as it turns out.
We would raise the rates to ensure we have enough money to support our
operating budget and our capital plan. We are self-funded only from
water bills, so we must set the rates accordingly.
Ruth Ann Hendrickson
(She, her)
On 8/4/2022 8:29 PM, Ruth Ann Hendrickson wrote:
Yes, of course some people don't water their lawns and others have
little or no lawn and then some have vast lawns and water them
lavishly. We have not recently run the data to see the percentages.
Let's just say that if all the lavish waterers stopped irrigating, we
wouldn't have enough revenue to run the water department. The base
charge only covers part of the cost maintaining and operating the
water infrastructure.
For leak detection, professionals drive through the town in the early
morning hours when very little water is consumed, and they use special
highly-sensitive acoustic equipment to hear the sound of running
water. The water department also attempts to measure or calculate
other non-metered water use, such as main flushing, firefighting, etc.
They measure the water pumped out into the system, subtract the water
read by the meters, and the water used in known activities mentioned
above and the result is the unaccounted for water (UAW). They always
find a number of leaks, some quite substantial, and fix them quickly.
A UAW of 25% is not uncommon.
Ruth Ann Hendrickson
(She, her)
On 8/4/2022 10:46 AM, Andy Wang wrote:
I'm curious, is it that some folks are going WAY over 65 gal/per
person/per day and throwing off the average or is that most
households are going over that per day? Just curious if it is
largely a systemic issue or just a few outliers that are pulling the
numbers high. That seems like the water department or the town has
that data since they are billing people. Is that information public
record? Seems like an interesting dataset to go through.
Also, 25% water loss seems huge. What is the mechanism to detect
loss of water? I presume you know how much is being cumulatively
pushed through all the meters in Lincoln (the out), but are there
multiple points to measure the input flow? Or even localize? I know
when the town suspected a leak near our house, they hired
someone with acoustic equipment to find the leak. it worked, but
probably not cost effective on a large scale.
Andy
On Thu, Aug 4, 2022 at 10:23 AM RAandBOB <[email protected]> wrote:
The state restricts us in three ways: we are supposed to meet 65
gallons per person per day overall. We have a maximum amount of
water we may draw from the well and from the pond. Our
unaccounted for water should be less than 10%. We don’t meet any
of those metrics.
We are not over by a lot in water usage, but we are always over.
We are under during the winter months, and significantly over
during the summer months, so you know that the extra water usage
is from outdoor watering.
With regard to the leaks, we have a leak detection program that
was yearly and is now going to be multiple times per year, but we
still have almost 25% water loss. My personal suspicion is that
it is from leaking service lines between the street and the
house. Very hard to detect especially for houses that are far
from the street.
Be a good scout for the water department. If you hear running
water or see swampy areas in your yard or in the woods, call us.
The last two major leaks that we fixed were reported by alert
citizens.
Ruth Ann
(She, her, hers)
On Aug 3, 2022, at 3:06 PM, Ursula Nowak <[email protected]> wrote:
If you are referring to my email, I didn't say we are using more
than our neighboring towns. We are using more than the goal set
by the state for us which is 65 gallons per person per day. At
least that is my understanding of why we are a level above the
state drought restrictions but perhaps a member of the water
commission could shed more light on this. I attended part of
their meeting on Friday and was impressed with their dedication
and diligence. I am grateful for the work they do on our behalf!
Ursula
On Wed, Aug 3, 2022 at 2:45 PM Pat Gray <[email protected]> wrote:
First, is the data correct?
Sent from my iPhone
> On Aug 3, 2022, at 2:42 PM, Elaine Hawkes
<[email protected]> wrote:
>
> Having read that our town uses more water than others,
and not noticing that we, or our cars, are any cleaner than
average, I am wondering in what ways we are using so much water.
> Does the data give any information?
> Thanks,
> Elaine
> 🤔
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