Committee reviews May–June water main break reports; staff describes detection and reporting processes

The Appleton City Utilities Committee received May and June water main break reports and a water distribution and meter-team update at its Aug. 12 meeting. Staff said the month-to-month break counts are similar to last year and roughly in line with the city's 20-year average.

"May and June themselves compared to last year are pretty similar," a water distribution staff member said, adding the city remains "a little bit above where we were this time last year, but I think the 20 year average for any given year is about 90 water main breaks in a year, so we're still on par with that."

Committee members asked about cast-iron pipe breaks that showed long durations before discovery. The water distribution staff described several detection methods: visible surface breaks reported by passersby or crews, water flowing into storm inlets, acoustic listening on fire hydrants and valves, and customer reports such as unusually active sump pumps during dry weather. "Sometimes we'll find them that way. We might hear, you know, we didn't have any rain for a couple of weeks up until this past week ... we hear water coming into an inlet or catch basin, we'll start poking around to see what's going on," the staff member said.

Staff also explained reporting limits for water-loss accounting. The city may only report water loss back to the first of the calendar year for annual reporting; for older breaks staff must use judgment to estimate when a leak began based on soil erosion, corrosion and the size of the crack. "We can't go back any further than the first of the year ... we'll use our judgment in between that," the staff member said.

Committee members did not take action on the report. Staff said they are monitoring break rates and will continue to evaluate detection and maintenance practices.