A cracked coupling in the City of Port Townsend, Washington’s water supply line leaked more than half a million gallons per day, and an estimated 40 million gallons total before it could be repaired.
Steve King, the city’s public works director, told the Port Townsend Leader that the leaking pipe was in a steep, hard-to-reach location near Snow Creek, which made it difficult to discover and contain the loss of water.
“We estimate that the leak at the time of discovery might have been flowing about 400 gallons per minute,” King told the paper. “There was no way to measure, so this is a visual assessment and estimate.”
As repairs were made to the water supply line, the city and mill both relied on the City Lake Reservoir, which typically provides water for about five days under normal conditions, according to an article in Underground Infrastructure.
The leaking line was part of the Olympic Gravity Water System (OGWS), which was constructed in 1905 and today provides an estimated 2 million gallons per day (GPD) of water to the city, and another 11 million GPD to the Port Townsend Paper Mill. The city owns the OGWS facilities and the water rights but leases the operation and maintenance of the source water collection and transmission system to the mill and its various owners.
According to The Leader, the original OGWS was already decaying and having difficulty supporting Port Townsend’s water needs by the mid-1920s. This led city officials to work to bring the Crown Zellerbach paper mill to the city, in an effort to revive the latter’s economy and generate the funds needed to renovate the water system.
The mill was constructed in 1927. The very next year, the city and Crown Zellerbach built a 29-mile wood-stave pipeline from the Big Quilcene River watershed to Port Townsend to replace the failing Snow Creek system. The wood-stave pipe would eventually be replaced, and other improvements to the OGWS would continue to be made over the decades through the continued partnership between the city and the mill’s owners.
The partnership between the city and the mill was most recently re-negotiated in December 2021. Per the agreement, “An estimated $161 million in current value infrastructure and other capital assets will need to be refurbished or replaced within the next 40 years, which includes setting aside funds beginning in 2037 to be held in reserve to implement a 125-year replacement schedule for the transmission pipeline installed between 1952 and 1972. This capital improvement program estimates an investment of $64 million in the next 20 years.”
City Manager John Mauro told The Leader that the greatest challenge to the water line in the coming 20 years “is likely the scale of investment and the uncertainty of pipeline failure.”
“Pipeline failure is inevitable but rarely predictable – which is why it’s critically important to everyone in our community and our future that we negotiated this agreement to provide the resources to [maintain the OGWS].”
Mauro also noted that the 2021 agreement was “the first time since 1956 there had been any substantive change to how we collaborate with the Mill to operate and repair the water line.” He also said that it also placed the city into the driver’s seat for handling repairs when leaks happen.
“[T]he recent pipe failure was a good and successful test of how we deploy resources and coordinate as the lead,” he said. “Indeed, there are other unknowns and challenges like climate impacts and geological/earthquake hazards to think about, but this can now all be done in the context of this agreement.”
GPRS Helps You Keep Your Water In Your System
6 billion gallons of treated water are lost daily due to untreated leaks in our buried infrastructure.
2.5 trillion gallons are lost annually to pipe defects – enough to fill 3.75 million Olympic-sized swimming pools.
There are at least 10 active leaks along every 100 miles of pipe in the United States. And 250,000-350,000 water main breaks occur annually.
When it comes to identifying water loss, GPRS provides expert leak detection services using both acoustic technology and leak detection correlators.
Acoustic leak detection employs advanced microphones, headphones, control units, and complementary technologies to detect water leaks by amplifying sound waves through various pipe materials.
Leak detection correlators, powered by algorithms, use radio waves with a dual sensor system to capture and display leak vibrations that indicate potential pressurized water system leaks. Combined with acoustic tools, this method ensures precise detection in water and fire suppression systems.
The accurate, field-verified data gathered by our SIM and NASSCO-certified Project Managers is always accessible through SiteMap® (patent pending), GPRS’ project and facility management platform designed to safeguard your assets and personnel.
SiteMap® can be accessed from any device—computer, tablet, or smartphone—allowing seamless sharing of critical infrastructure data, which eliminates communication gaps that cause missteps and delays.
To help water system operators take a more proactive approach to maintaining their infrastructure, GPRS hosts Water & Sewer Damage Awareness Week. From October 21-25, our safety experts will travel across the country delivering free safety presentations to municipalities, engineers, facility managers, property management groups, and anyone else who is ready to regain control of their fresh and wastewater infrastructure.
Click here to schedule your WSDAW presentation today!
Frequently Asked Questions
How many miles of pipe can GPRS test in a day?
The amount of pipe we can test often depends on the experience of the Leak Detector. Team members with many years of experience can test up to 10 miles of pipe a day on a metallic system (Cast Iron/Ductile). Experienced Leak Detectors can test a contact point (Hydrant/Valve) within a minute before moving on to the next one. Leak Detectors can work efficiently because they are trained to hear the specific tone that a leak produces compared to any other number of noises a general environment makes.
Why don’t I see any water at the location where you’ve pinpointed a leak?
Water finds the path of least resistance. Water can run through cracks in subsurface rock or make its way into storm, sanitary, and conduit piping. If the subsurface contains a high volume of sand, it will naturally flow farther down. There is no water visible on the surface in more than 99% of the leaks we locate.
Can you tell me the size of the leak you’ve located?
After analyzing thousands of previous leaks detected, we asked clients to send us pictures of the remediation. This information has helped us compare our final leak signal detected with the results of the actual leak. We determine the size of the leak by how far the leak signal travels between contact points and the pitch of the tone received. However, we do not produce formal leak estimations.
