Unaccounted For Water

A strategic priority for the District is to ensure there is enough raw water supply to provide for the needs of our customers. Unfortunately, during the hottest, driest times of the year, when customers have the highest water use, the District may be required to enter drought restrictions due to the supply of raw water. One step the District can take to increase water availability is to decrease the amount of unaccounted for water. 

The District has historically had a large percentage of unaccounted for water. It was as high as 27% in 2012. Following an aggressive leak detection survey and leak repair work, the unaccounted for water had been near 10% since January 2013, but began rising again. Starting in 2015 and completed in 2017, the District replaced the oldest water lines which were accounting for the largest numbers of detected leaks. This resulted in a drop in unaccounted for water. Currently the District is around 8% unaccounted for water. 

So what is unaccounted for water? In simple terms, unaccounted for water is the percentage of water that cannot be accounted for when comparing the total amount of water sent into the distribution system from the treatment plant to the amount of metered. 

The District's goal is to have the unaccounted for water at 10% or lower. Steps that the District takes to reach and maintain this number include:

• Replacing water lines subject to leaks 
• Replacing manual read meters with automatic read meters 
• Fire hydrant maintenance program 
• Meter replacement and calibration program 
• Leak detection program 
• Valve maintenance program