Water District to install leak detection system

Malia Spencer

Wednesday, July 2, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.

The board of the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which is trying through incentives and rate increases to get Las Vegas area residents to save water, voted Tuesday to spend $2.14 million to plug its own leaky pipes.

The County Commission, acting as the water district board, a $2.14 million agreement to purchase and install a new leak detection system in the district's pipelines.

The deal with Fluid Conservation Systems Inc. will allow water district officials to detect leaks in the system before the water penetrates the pavement, said Tom Minwegen, deputy general manager for engineering operation.

The goal of the new system is to reduce the water district's amount of unaccounted water to 5 percent from the current 6 percent, Minwegen said. He added this would save 1.2 billion gallons of water a year.

"We see this as an opportunity to go after water leakage," Minwegen said. "We are trying to capture and reduce that further."

Las Vegas wastes less water than most municipal water districts, Minwegen said. Nationally unaccounted water rates run between 10 percent and 40 percent.

The new system has already been successfully in place in a small area of the pipeline, and that encouraged the district to move forward with further implementation, he said.

The Las Vegas Valley Water District has ordered 8,000 devices from Fluid Conservation that will be installed in existing street valve boxes, Minwegen said. This means there will be no additional digging while the new system is put in place. The district hopes to have the system running in the next four to five months.

The small devices will use an FM radio frequency to transmit a signal that will be read by laptop computers in water district vehicles. The signal will be analyzed and if a leak is heard, the leak can then be pinpointed in the pipeline, Minwegen said.

By listening for a leak and fixing it before water "bubbles up through manhole covers" the water district will be "pro-active" in its drought conservation efforts, Minwegen said.