News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
Crossville will pursue new metering systems out of its main water system and replace household meters in an effort to curb water loss.
The city has lost some 254 million gallons of water during the first six months of the year. That’s roughly a 31 percent water loss. The state requires water loss to be below 19.9 percent, according to Council Member JJ Graham III.
“I think we should consider a motion to receive recommendations for corrective actions from the city manager,” Graham said.
In June, the water loss reached 41 percent. Director of Engineering Tim Begley said he believes the increased numbers are less water leaking into the ground and more water being miscounting.
“We may say there’s five million gallons coming out of the plant and there’s only three million gallons coming out of the plant,” City Manager Greg Wood said. “We don’t have an accurate way to assess that.”
Begley said he wants to install two master meters to check the amount of water leaving the plant. A contractor quoted a price tag of about $500,000 six months ago to complete that addition. Begley said a recent quote came back at roughly half that.
“I don’t have a comfort level of how much water we are truly putting into the system,” Graham said.
Some of the water loss may be bad reporting at the local meter level. Utility Maintenance Superintendent Billy Martin said the city has the replacement budgeted of some 3,000 meters citywide. Martin said the meters are out of warranty. Some are reporting issues with the register and other electronics inside.
“They don’t send the right readings when they go bad,” Martin said.
Wood suggested the city go ahead with the purchase and installation of the new individual meters. The council would also consider the master metering quotation as a budget amendment. Wood said other steps could be taken based on those results.
The next step could be hiring a firm to identify leaks.
Council could consider the master meter installation at its meeting next week.
