PRESS RELEASE: New Leak Detection System Proves to be a Game Changer in Helping Water Districts Reduce Water Loss
Innovation takes water loss detection to a new level.
(Tulsa, OK, 10/4/22) – Earlier this year, a rural water district in Jefferson County, Oklahoma, came to eLynx Water Solutions to fulfill their need for water leak detection services. “With our expertise in cloud-based SCADA, telemetry, remote monitoring and alarming, our development team created a device that could be easily installed by the operator that would alert them to low water pressures across their supply pipeline,” stated Samantha McPheter, eLynx CEO. Since the installation of ‘Round the Clock’ Water Leak Detection devices, Jefferson County RWD 1 has saved over a million gallons of water -- so far!
Much of the drinking water infrastructure in the United States has been in service for decades and can be a significant source of water loss through leaks. The EPA’s “Water Audits and Water Loss Control for the Public Water Systems” document notes, “the average water loss in systems is 16 percent.” National studies indicate that, on average, 14 percent of the water treated by water systems is lost to leaks.
Water leaks continue to be the major reason for water loss across the country. An EPA report dated December 2016 says, “the effects of aging infrastructure are seen annually in approximately 240,000 main breaks, leakage of 1.7 trillion gallons of treated drinking water, at the related loss of approximately $2.6 billion.”
Many leak detection methods provide water operators with a one-time assessment of their operations. To find leaks in the field, some methods include chlorine-sniffing dogs, drones armed with infrared cameras, or walking the line with advanced ground microphones. With these methodologies, water management facilities are only given a snapshot of what their operations look like in a particular moment.
eLynx Water Solutions designed a low-cost solution that provides ‘Round the Clock’ Water Leak Detection, making it possible to monitor for leaks in real-time. The solution allows water districts to see continuous pressure readings throughout their entire water system. Each eLynx Water Leak Detection unit operates continuously in remote locations and transmits water pressure readings every fifteen minutes that provide water utilities with 24/7 oversight of their water supply pipelines. Decreases in water pressure are detected and reported immediately via text and email to operators.
In April 2022, the Jefferson County RWD 1 system manager, Kenny Lovett, and his team installed seven eLynx ‘Round the Clock’ Water Leak Detection units across their system. In June 2022, Mr. Lovett’s team received a text alert at 11:45 PM regarding a low-pressure alarm. By 5:00 AM, the leak was repaired. Mr. Lovett stated, “Normally, we would not have known about this leak until customers began reporting low or no water the next morning or our SCADA system sent us a low tank level alert, which would have been hours after the instantaneous pressure alert from eLynx. We estimate that the district saved 250,000 to 500,000 gallons of water by catching the leak early.”
Another low-pressure alarm in August at 1:30 AM allowed the district to identify a leak and fix by 4:30 AM, saving an additional 500,000 gallons and equating to thousands of dollars in savings. Mr. Lovett stated, “working with eLynx has been a game changer in helping us to reduce our water loss. Our water loss percentage has been as high as 16% in the past year and dipped to 4% after the leak detection units were installed. The $7,000 total investment in the water leak detection units has already provided 100% return on our investment in four short months, plus saved over a million gallons of water for the district.”
eLynx CEO, Samantha McPheter, said, “the ‘Round the Clock’ Water Leak Detection innovation will help water operators across the nation in reducing real water loss with real-time leak detection. It’s just one way we are helping to conserve our precious water resources.”
eLynx is a cloud-based SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) and data historian SAAS company based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. eLynx was born out of a gas pipeline company over 20 years ago to help oil and gas companies monitor and interact with their wells and pipeline equipment remotely. Since then, our technology and team have evolved to provide the most user-friendly, modern, and reliable SCADA monitoring service on the market.
We’ve taken the SCADA knowledge gained from the oil and gas industry and applied it to creating a water management solution that is ideal for water operators and built to serve rural communities to larger municipalities. From telemetry, remote monitoring and alarming to ‘Round the Clock’ Water Leak Detection, eLynx Water Solutions provides a reliable, low-cost solution to water utilities.