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Council hears proposal for "lost-water" fee after line breaks; staff say 35 million gallons wasted annually
Summary
Staff presented a proposal to recover costs when contractors breach water lines, citing about 35,000,000 gallons lost annually; staff said the city would not charge contractors if the city mismarked lines and explained how lost volume would be calculated.
Bullhead City's workshop on Feb. 14 included a presentation of a proposed "lost-water" fee intended to reimburse the city when water is lost through line breaks, including those caused by contractors.
Speaker 7 told the council the city estimates it loses about "35,000,000, that's million with an m, gallons of water a year" through line breaks and said the proposed fee would reimburse the city for water that was produced and not billed to end customers. "What this fee would do is reimburse us for that lost water," Speaker 7 said.
Council members asked how the city would assess responsibility in cases where lines were properly marked. Speaker 6 noted laws require contractors to request locates before digging and asked how the city would handle mismarked lines. Speaker 7 replied the city would not charge a contractor if the city mismarked the line: "We wouldn't be charging those individuals for that because if we mismatch the line, that's on us. That's not on the contractor." He also noted some of the maps received from EPCOR were "not the highest quality" and that the city's locator staff have identified many discrepancies.
Staff explained the method to estimate lost volume: using known line diameter, pressures and the time the line was broken to calculate flow during the outage. "We can actually calculate out pretty closely what amount of water has gone through that break," Speaker 7 said.
Why it matters: a fee aimed at recovering lost water could shift costs to contractors who damage infrastructure and potentially reduce repeat incidents, but council members raised fairness and implementation questions about mislocations and map quality. Speaker 6 characterized the measure as a reminder for contractors to call for locates before digging.
Next steps: The proposal was discussed but not approved at the workshop. Staff did not record a vote; they will refine implementation details, exceptions and calculations and return to council for further consideration.
