Grand Jury: Water loss found in cities across in Solano County

Every city in Solano County is experiencing some amount of water loss, according to a recent report released from the Solano County grand jury.

The report, available online at www.solano.courts.ca.gov, noted that the cities saw an annual water loss of 9 to 25 percent of their total distributed water supply. Water loss, according to the report, is considered to be the difference in the amount of water that is treated by each municipality and the amount of water used that is billed to the final consumer.

The grand jury noted that the cities have implemented intervention programs to control the water losses, but only make replacement or repairs as a “reactive condition.”

Additionally, the drought that is now is its fourth year highlights the many deficiencies of the aging infrastructure of the water distribution system in all seven cities within the county, according to the grand jury.

“This leaking infrastructure is a major cause of water loss for each city,” the grand jury reported, adding that the other “significant source of water loss is due to inaccurate water meters at residences and businesses.”

There are different types of water loss, according to the grand jury, real, apparent and non-revenue.

Real water loss is leakage within the infrastructure during transmission and distribution mains, leakage and overflows from water storage tanks and leakage from service connections up to and including the meter.

“The issue of water loss from pipeline leakage is exacerbated by the shrinking water supplies allocated to the county,” the report noted.

Apparent water loss consists of unauthorized consumption or theft at hydrants, customer metering inaccuracies and systematic data handling errors in the meter reading and billing processes.

Non-revenue water loss is water usage not billed, not paid and not reported. There can be authorized water losses for which there is no accounting, according to the report, such as fire suppression, hydrant flushing, water pressure valve checks and municipal use.

The city of Vacaville reports that approximately 10 percent of its annual water production is lost due to breaks or leaks in the distribution pipeline system and the deterioration in accuracy of the water meter consumption reporting, according to the report.

Vacaville’s annual average consumption of water is approximately 17,200 acre feet of water. The water comes from several sources, 9,000 acre feet from Lake Berryessa through the Solano County Water Agency and the Solano Irrigation District, 18,000 acre feet from the North Bay Aqueduct through the Solano Water Project and 8,100 acre feet of ground water from the 12 permitted wells located in the city.

Meanwhile other cities’ reported water loss rates were: Benicia, 25 percent loss; Fairfield, 10 percent loss; Rio Vista, 9 percent loss; Suisun City, 22 percent loss; and Vallejo, 11 percent loss.

Due to a change in water providers for the city of Dixon last August, the grand jury reported that the providers were not able to submit enough water loss data for the purpose of the inquiry because it had less than one year to do so.

The grand jury reported four recommendations for all of the cities: Conducting routine scheduled water audits in order to improve control of water loss and for water supply planning, identifying and replacing aging infrastructure, complying with programs to address inaccurate water meter readings, and enforcing and continuing expansion of water conservation measure for residential and business consumers.

 “Each city has paid attention in varying degrees to address their water concerns,” the grand jury concluded. “However, the action to mitigate the pipeline infrastructure water losses has been slow and incomplete. All water consumers in Solano County must take responsibility in water conservation efforts.”

May 26, 2015

The Reporter

By Melissa Murphy