Edmond continues to chase water line leaks as plant upgrades continue

EDMOND — The city is spending more money to enable crews to continue to chase leaks in its water distribution system while it launches another major phase to upgrade its water treatment plant.

This week, members of the Edmond City Council authorized spending another $1 million to continue to identify and repair leaks throughout the city's distribution system.

Officials told council members they expect the additional $1 million needed to identify and repair system leaks will last through June. The council previously authorized the use of $500,000 from water utility reserve funds to chase the problem in late October.

"The last time I was here to talk to you about leaks, we were at about 250 and rising," said Keith Stewart, Edmond's director of public works. "I am happy to report to you today that number is less than 125."

Stewart said the city used the initial funds to bring aboard two private contractors to help the city plug holes in the system, and that each company provided three crews to provide Edmond with additional services.

Half of the additional funds will be used to repair leaks, while the remainder will be used to replace sidewalks or driveways that have to be torn up as part of the repair process, Stewart told council members.

"We still are on target, hopefully by the end of this calendar year, to be back to a manageable number and back to our crews handling this in house without having to use the contractors," Stewart said. "The new leaks coming in have really subsided ... I am going to take that as a sign we are making progress. It has been a weird year."

Edmond City Council receives update on water plant expansion work

Council members also authorized transferring about $17.5 million from the city's reserve water and wastewater funds to pay Carollo Engineers to oversee the design and then construction of the final phase of Edmond's multi-year project to boost the capacity of its water treatment plant east of Arcadia Lake.

The plant's capacity will increase from 12 million to 30 million gallons of water daily when the work is done.

An initial phase costing about $38.2 million and completed earlier this year installed a system to remove solids from raw water it recovers from the lake.

More: Edmond's pool leaks thousands of gallons of water a day. Can the city afford to fix it?

A second phase costing nearly $192 million and started last year is installing a carbon filters facility, tanks that can be used for backwash and recycled water, adding electrical backup systems at the plant and increasing the system's overall pumping and storage capacities. Officials expect that project to be completed in about three years.

Estimated costs for a third phase that's being redesigned will add an ozone treatment facility, a chemical building, additional filtering systems and a lime softening process. Officials estimate costs for that work at more than $200 million and hope it can be complete within six years.

"There is a lot going on" at the project location, said Kris Neifing, Edmond's director of Water Resources.

Reserve funds, rate increases paying for Edmond's water upgrades

In September, the council approved a series of water rate increases that will happen over the next several years to help pay for the improvements.

The increases, impacting both base monthly service charges and how much customers pay for the actual water used, are expected to provide the system with enough funding to pay its bills related to expanding and improving the community's water treatment plant on Arcadia Lake's east side.

Councilman Tom Robins asked Neifing this week whether or not Edmond residents could expect rate hikes to ease once the water plant's construction is completed.

"We have said all along that 2 to 3% rate increases (annually) are needed just to keep up with inflation and to fund projects, long term," Neifing replied. "Our reserve balances in the water and wastewater funds are being used to slow down those increases.

"In any one year, we could have a 50% increase in lime softening chemicals or chlorine, or whatever it may be, so the cost of treatment is not getting any less. I will never say we will never increase rates again to keep this going.

"The only way we can recover costs is through user services," he said.

Could Edmond better communicate with residents about water line leaks?

Councilman Robins asked Monday whether Edmond could create a video it could email or send to residents who notify the city about water line breaks to explain how the city investigates, prioritizes and repairs those leaks.

"One of the things that stands out in residents' minds is when they see a leak and report it, they want to know what happens next," Robins said. "Have we made any upgrades to that?"

Stewart told the council his staff obtains contact information from line break reporters and then communicates with them to let them know if the problem involves a private line they are responsible for getting repaired.

"We continue to follow up with that person until the leak is repaired," Stewart said.

Edmond operates more than 500 miles of water mains and more than 200 miles of service lines (each 20 to 50 feet in length) to distribute water to its nearly 40,000 residential and commercial customers.

Residents can notify the city about a leaking line by calling 405-216-7770. Once the city is aware of an issue, it sends a worker to investigate whether the leak involves a private or city line. Repairs are prioritized based on the leaks' severity.

A typical leak takes four hours or less to repair, although in some cases the project can last a day or longer when the city must install a replacement line under a street.

Cyclical changes in soil moisture levels and temperatures cause the ground to expand or contract, which puts pressure on lines and creates some leaks. Plus, some metal lines buried in corrosive soils degrade over time.

Edmond also is seeing more instances where lines are being struck by contractors building new homes, businesses or renovating existing structures.

Plus, the system's overall age contributes, given some of its water distribution lines have been buried for more than 50 years. The city uses a cutting-edge composite line when making repairs that is more flexible and durable to reduce future leak-related issues.

Edmond also tracks "lost water" data monthly, comparing the amount of water it puts into its distribution system with the amount of water customers' meters tell it was consumed.

In October, officials said its water system was losing about 8% of the water put in that wasn't making it to consumers. Water loss rates for municipal water systems nationally average 20%, they also said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: How Edmond Oklahoma is addressing ongoing water leaks, plant upgrades