State bill to monitor water loss

A new bill authored by Petaluma’s representative in the state Senate that is intended to curb water leaks appears to be a slam-dunk, with widespread support from water agencies, environmentalists, academics and the state Department of Water Resources.

But in Petaluma at least, it probably won’t change a thing, according to the city’s public works director.

Senate Bill 1420, introduced by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, would require water suppliers - including the City of Petaluma, the Sonoma County Water Agency and hundreds of others - to audit their distribution systems for water loss, then report that information to the state. As of press time the bill was sitting on Gov. Jerry Brown’s desk awaiting his signature.

In this time of prolonged drought, “We need to know how much water is lost in transit through these urban water systems in order to take cost-effective steps to reduce water loss and better manage our state’s water resources,” said Wolk in a statement.

That kind of auditing is already standard practice for a professionally run agency, said Dan St. John, Petaluma’s director of public works. He added that the city estimates its annual water loss to be “somewhere in the 10 percent range,” which is “well within what is considered normal for a water system of our size and age.”

“I’m not sure why we need the state to tell us what we already know a well-operated water delivery system should be doing,” St. John said, although he later conceded that reporting all that information to the state could be useful.

“You’ve got to have good data to make good policy. I get that, I support that.”

St. John also agreed that, “Hopefully it will get those agencies that don’t do it to start doing it.”

That is indeed one of the intentions of SB 1420, according to Ann DuBay, a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Water Agency, which supports the bill.

“Communities like Petaluma and other agencies, and the Water Agency as a matter of fact, are very aggressive in making sure that what we’re pumping is what’s delivered,” DuBay said. However, “There are other cities that may not be as aggressive as Petaluma is” when it comes to tracking lost water.

It is hoped that by keeping tabs on water lost to both slow leaks and dramatic bursts, the state’s many agencies covered by the bill - urban water suppliers of moderate size or larger, nearly 500 in all - will be better equipped to improve their efficiency.

Wolk elaborated on this, saying in an email, “Currently there is no requirement that information on water loss in a water supplier’s distribution system be made public or collected in one location.” Wolk’s bill, she said, “would require that this information be made public through urban water management plans. This information can then be used to help water agencies save water, reduce system disruptions, and reduce the chemical and energy costs associated with the treatment and distribution of water.”

For its part, DuBay said, the Sonoma County Water Agency has a water loss rate of somewhere between 1 and 2 percent. Although that’s quite a bit lower than the city’s water loss rate, DuBay said wholesale water agencies are more efficient because their infrastructures are newer and stronger, utilizing a few dozen big aqueducts rather than the many tens of thousands of small pipes needed to get water to the kitchen sink.

Then there’s the sheer age of Petaluma’s infrastructure, which includes pipes well over a century old - and made of materials, like iron, that can leak slowly for years without anyone knowing.

Depending on circumstances, those pipes are also subject to more spectacular bursts, as seen on June 11 when a water main ruptured at North Petaluma Boulevard and Western Avenue. The rupture flooded the intersection, hurt revenues for nearby businesses and resulted in an estimated 90,000 gallons of water lost.

That was the worst leak St. John has seen in his three years here, he said, adding that the pipe that caused it is slated for replacement in the city’s five-year, $28 million capital improvement program.

The maintenance, he noted, is “entirely funded by the citizens of Petaluma” through their monthly water bills.