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House panel sends water-leak notification bill to interim study
Summary
Representative Doug Owens asked the committee to hold H.B. 536 for interim study so legislators can refine scope, implementation timing and costs of a proposal to standardize water-leak detection and notification practices.
The House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Standing Committee on Monday placed H.B. 536, a bill to regularize best practices for detecting water leaks, on interim study.
Representative Doug Owens, the bill sponsor, told the committee the proposal would not require new data collection but would encourage wider use of existing data streams from water-delivery systems to detect spikes in usage that may indicate leaks. He said he does not have comprehensive data on how much water is lost statewide but cited anecdotal examples of frequent large leaks and at least one constituent who received a multiple-thousand-dollar bill.
"The bill is relating to trying to detect water leaks that sometimes can be quite large," Owens said. "We don't have comprehensive data on how much this occurs or how much water gets wasted, but anecdotally it does seem to happen quite frequently."
Owens said systems already in use by some water suppliers can send usage data that allow providers to detect spikes and alert customers. Committee members raised questions about implementation speed, costs and data availability; Representative Chu said the idea is "definitely worthy of some further study" while noting concerns about practical implementation.
Chair records show the bill will go to interim study for additional work between sessions; the committee took no vote to pass the bill during this hearing.
Owens told the committee he and staff will use the interim period to "figure out the scope of the problem and the need for it and the timing for implementation."
