Joliet hires consultant to track water system loss

Joliet has hired a private consultant to help the city get a handle on a rate of water loss that has stayed above 30% despite years of water main and meter replacements.

The city needs to reduce its rate of water loss to 10% to meet a state standard for municipalities that use Lake Michigan water. Joliet plans to convert to a Lake Michigan system in 2030.

“We have a number of programs in place to help us get there,” Anthony Anczer, deputy director for engineering in the city’s utilities department, told the City Council Public Service Committee at a meeting July 1.

The city, however, decided it’s time to bring in outside help and hired Cavanaugh & Associates out of Chicago for $248,412. The City Council approved the contract July 2.

“A consultant specialized in water loss control is now needed to manage the city’s current water loss activities and to lead and manage the program into the future,” states a staff memo to the council.

Anczer said Cavanaugh has national experience, which should be useful in helping Joliet.

But he also said the city may be close to a breakthrough. Some results from meter replacements look promising, Anczer said.

“We’re seeing some pretty good numbers behind the scenes,” he said. “We should have better data on that in a couple of months.”

The meter modernization program is aimed at tracking water being used but not paid for, which is called non-revenue water and counted as water loss.

Anczer said the city is starting to see “significant decreases in water loss” through the replacement of underreporting meters.

“We’re on the tail end of replacing 10,000 meters that were shown to be the most underreporting meters,” he said.

The city also has installed district meters that have detected unusual water breaks that previously went unnoticed, Anczer said, pointing to one dramatic example at a vacant house in an older neighborhood.

“You saw that water was coming out of window wells in the basement,” he said.

Joliet for several years has been replacing aging water mains, believed to have been the primary source of water loss. The city is spending $85 million to replace 33 miles of water mains this year alone, and all mains built before 1970 are being replaced.

Anczer in February reported water loss at a rate of 31%, an improvement over a past mark of 35% but still far above where the city needs to be.

The city in January asked consultants to submit qualifications to help Joliet manage its water-loss problem. Seven firms responded, and four were interviewed, according to the staff memo.