Squamish is slowly losing untold quantities of water each year due to leaking underground infrastructure.
After months spent studying municipal infrastructure, consultant group Kerr Wood Leidal (KWL) Associates have presented their preliminary results showing as much as 86 per cent of Squamish's underground pipes are leaking.
Each local neighbourhood was partitioned into sections, and 14 out of 16 of these areas showed high water loss, according to consultants. However the exact water loss amount is difficult to determine since assessments don't take into account unauthorized irrigation of lawns.
Ryan Lesychen at KWL Associates said the highest water loss areas appear to be in the Industrial Park and downtown.
However definitive results are hard to determine, he said, since water consumption assessments are normally carried out during the winter months when irrigation wouldn't skew the data.
"The initial values look really high with the big disclaimer that irrigation might have been a factor."
Nonetheless, he said, the water loss still looks excessive.
"It's definitely on the higher side," he said, "although that's to be expected in an area that doesn't have a lot of flow monitoring."
The District of Squamish council approved commissioning the study at a June 1 meeting after engineering director Brian Barnett explained tax dollars are going down the drain.
"Reported high water losses show our current system is inadequate," he said.
Squamish at that point only had two flow monitors for the entire system.
Over the next month consultants will take steps to pinpoint the exact problem areas, and the district will follow up by fixing those leaks.
The district's 2010 budget includes $200,000 to buy monitoring equipment and fix the leaks. District water operators will be trained to find leaks and use leak detection equipment, including two leak noise correlators.
"How it works is that you put one on each end of the pipe you're surveying and it sends sound waves back and forth," said municipal infrastructure engineer Jenni Chancey.
"It identifies the leak location so precisely that it is within less than one metre.
This is where the district will save a lot of money because you don't just start digging next to where the water's coming out, which isn't always accurate. Instead you locate the actual source of the leak."
