Austin is losing even more water to leaky city pipes than previously thought

Austin’s leaky pipe problem keeps getting worse. In recent years, the city’s water utility has recorded losses of about 7 billion gallons annually due to leaks in its treatment and distribution system. That’s about enough water to fill Lady Bird Lake three times over every year.

Now, an annual review shows the problem could be far greater than officials had suspected.

According to Austin’s Water Audit Report, the city lost nearly 9.3 billion gallons of water last year. That’s enough to fill the lake four times, and an increase of nearly 31% from 2023.

The report, a document utilities must file with the state’s Water Development Board every year, found the city lost about 24 gallons of water per Austin resident per day last year, up from 21 gallons in 2023.

Reasons for increased water loss

After the report was filed this spring, Shay Ralls Roalson, Austin Water’s director, sent a memo to City Council members alerting them of a significant rise in the city’s Infrastructure Leakage Index, a rating system that gauges how effectively cities manage leaks.

While that memo did not quantify the volume of water lost last year, Roalson wrote that Austin’s leak index was worse for several reasons, including improved leak detection and system monitoring thanks to recommendations from the engineering firm Black and Veatch.

But, utility officials also said, 2024 may have simply been a bad year for leaks.

“The reasons for that [increase] is due to better data that was identified in the Black and Veatch report, as well as an increase in real losses due to the hot and dry summer last year — particularly in the latter part of the year,” conservation program manager Kevin Kluge told Austin’s Resource Management Commission on Tuesday.

Hot, dry weather can lead to more leaks in water pipes.

The question of how much of last year’s increased water loss is due to updated monitoring is an important one, as it could reveal the degree to which earlier audits underestimated the amount of loss.

Wrong direction

Either way, the numbers show Austin heading in the wrong direction when it comes to tackling leaks, an issue that has long vexed utility officials.

In 2023, Austin Water retained Black and Veatch to try to get a handle on the problem. The utility said the firm’s recommendations would play a crucial role in future water-saving strategies.

But even that partnership became the subject of controversy. The utility delayed the release of Black and Veatch’s report until late last year, causing some to wonder if it contained bad news for Austin Water.

Now, the water loss has been shown to be more severe — thanks, in part, to the engineering firm’s findings. Austin Water said those same findings should help the city begin plugging more leaks.

“We are implementing those recommendations and we are increasing the amount of money for service line replacements,” Kluge said in Tuesday’s meeting.

This story was produced as part of the Austin Monitor’s reporting partnership with KUT.  

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