At its Oct. 15 special meeting, the Pagosa Area Water and Sanitation District (PAWSD) Board of Directors heard an update on the district’s work with Asterra to locate leaks within the PAWSD water system.
High levels of water loss and infiltration of runoff and other water into the wastewater collection system have been a significant issue for the district in recent years, although fixing the issue has been difficult due to the challenge of locating leaks.
As discussed at previous PAWSD meetings, Asterra uses satellites emitting waves in the radio spectrum to scan below the ground surface and detect areas with treated drinking water, helping isolate even small leaks that are otherwise difficult to locate.
At the Oct. 15 meeting, PAWSD Operations Manager Andrew Connor explained that Asterra staff arrived on Oct. 13 and would be working for 10 working days on examining and locating leaks with sounding equipment in areas where Asterra previously identified potential leaks from satellite imagery taken in February and September.
He added that he had given the board information on one leak that the company identified on Dayspring Place, which he noted was not running on the ground surface and was not visible from the road.
However, he noted that Asterra’s satellite analysis and sounding equipment located a 25 gallon-per-minute leak in the pipes at this location.
Connor stated that, since PAWSD staff were currently busy dealing with heavy rain and flooding, the potential leaks that Asterra staff located would be marked on GPS and later be prioritized by PAWSD staff.
He added that, after the leaks are prioritized, crews would be sent out to start excavating and repairing lines with potential leaks.
Connor indicated that the work on Dayspring Place also located a leaking fire hydrant and three leaking meter bottoms which had already been repaired or would be addressed in the near future.
He added that the leaking meter bottoms were caused by weather conditions last winter and that Asterra’s satellite data and sounding was able to detect the leaks.
“Once we start digging up holes, we’ll really get an idea of how successful this program is, but I’m hopeful that we can start getting a handle on it,” Connor said.
“For the price we paid, if they find 25, 30 gallons per minute of leaks, I feel like we got a decent deal out of it,” PAWSD board member Alex Boehmer said.
“I’ve been around for several program startups and this has been the most promising so far,” Connor said. “We’ll see what it looks like when we start digging holes.”
josh@pagosasun.com
>