Murphy staff report 19% system water loss last year; city outlines multi-pronged plan

City staff presented a water-loss update to the Murphy City Council on April 15, saying an analysis of the city’s distribution system showed a 19% loss for the prior year and outlining steps the city plans to take to reduce that figure.

The report, delivered by Laura Pagati (staff member), summarized a 10‑year pattern of intermittent nonrevenue water and gave monthly snapshots: January 17%, February 13% and March 17% for the most recent quarter. “We determined that we had a water loss for last year of 19%,” Pagati told the council.

Why it matters: sustained nonrevenue water at this level increases operating costs and can mask distribution problems. The presentation included examples of recent service leaks and the staff’s estimates of lost water from individual events — for example, a 7‑day service leak on Dakota Drive estimated at about 637,000 gallons and a one‑day leak on Pioneer Path estimated at about 131,000 gallons — to illustrate how individual failures can add up.

What staff found and proposed

Pagati said staff completed field work to confirm there are no interconnects between Murphy and neighboring utilities (Plano, Richardson, Wylie, Sachse and Parker) and that the city is refining how it gathers and reports data. She described three categories of work the city will pursue: (1) improving data collection and standardizing reporting across customer service, public works and the fire department; (2) refining construction/hydrant‑meter accounting; and (3) piloting additional leak‑detection methods, including satellite surveys and an AI tool used by a neighboring city.

Daniel (staff member), who led the effort to streamline the monthly reports, told council that the change was intended to make the data easier to interpret. “We just put it in more simpler terms than the graphs and the charts,” he said, describing a break‑out of usage by residential, commercial and irrigation categories.

The council asked about response times and the city’s capital plan. Pagati and staff said emergency repairs that affect household pressure (below the city’s 35 PSI target) receive immediate response; nonemergency irrigation or smaller service leaks may take longer depending on staffing and equipment. Staff noted recent all‑night repair work on a Pioneer Path leak that began after a midnight report.

Capital and operational next steps

Pagati said the city has a capital program item proposing a phased five‑year project to replace aging service lines — roughly 6,440 total service lines citywide, about 5,000 of which are copper and are the primary source of the reported service leaks. She also said staff will continue spot checks of authorized consumption, refine hydrant‑meter data collection and explore targeted leak detection tools to prioritize replacement work.

The presentation acknowledged inconsistencies in prior reporting and noted recent changes both within city record‑keeping and in the way North Texas Water Municipal District provides monthly data. Staff said the work is intended to produce more consistent, auditable monthly results and to identify where a phased replacement program would deliver the most benefit.

What was not specified

Several large yearly volume figures presented during the briefing contained transcription or rounding problems in the meeting record; staff emphasized the percentage loss (19%) and the monthly trends rather than a single annual volumetric number. Where exact totals were unclear on the public record, staff characterized the data as under active review.

Next council step

Council did not take formal action on the presentation; staff said it will continue the data‑refinement work, pursue pilot leak‑detection tools and return with more detailed cost and phasing information for the proposed service‑line replacement project.