Edmond water bills continue to increase as reported line breaks climb

EDMOND — Tempers are boiling as residents and business owners are about to see their water bills go up amid a "historically high" number of leaks in town.

Meanwhile, a half-million dollars from a water-related reserve fund is being used to address the leaks, which create flows of water often seen pooling at curbs and running into storm drains.

Nov. 1 price increases for nearly 40,000 residential and commercial customers are hard to understand when leaks are so prevalent, said Barry Bloyd, an Edmond resident who said he and neighbors have seen multiple leaks the past year inside of the Timber Ridge addition, north of Danforth Road on Boulevard's east side.

"We had a leak at our front entrance from, call it the end of May, that didn't get fixed until about the first of September," Bloyd said.

Another leak popped up inside the addition in early October but was fixed within a couple of weeks. Edmond could do better, Bloyd said.

"It is really frustrating they are going to raise our water rates when you look out and see water running down the road."

Edmond water line leaks, bills have increased over time

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 residents.

The number of leaks averaged about 400 annually until the past couple of years, when they began to dramatically increase.

Edmond experienced 923 leaks during the past 12 months. A majority of those involve 1-inch service lines carrying treated water from mains to meters measuring water use inside of homes and businesses.

Numbers of water main breaks, which average about 60 annually, also have been higher the past year, said Keith Stewart, Edmond's director of public works.

While Edmond has been able to keep the issue under control in past years by deploying crews who often work overtime to address leaks, the last couple of years were tougher, Stewart said.

"That's when we really saw the number really go up and stay up," he said.

At the same time, Edmond is raising its monthly service and usage charges for water and wastewater services to both residential and commercial customers as it continues to build about a half-billion dollars of improvements designed to wean it off needing Oklahoma City water during high-use events.

Beyond the Nov. 1 increase, Edmond recently adopted a plan to bump rates higher each of the following three years.

Customer complaints help Edmond track leaking lines

Edmond keeps track of water leaks several ways.

Residents often notify the city lines are leaking (line breaks can be reported by calling 405-216-7770). Until the past couple of years, the average daily number of active leak reports inside of Edmond was 50 or less.

Edmond's active leak reports count has reached as many as 250 at times during this past year. Reports on active leaks averaged about 170 in early October.

Repairs are prioritized based on leaks' severity, something that often "changes weekly, or even daily. But once it is on our list, either we or one of our contractors will repair it," Stewart said. "It's kind of a moving target."

Failures of lines owned by property owners that carry the water from meters into the homes also likely higher than average, though Edmond doesn't keep a running count of those.

Edmond sends a worker out to investigate whether the leak involves a private or city line after a complaint is received.

Property owners are notified and are responsible for making repairs in cases where a private line is the source.

Geyser-like water spouts are easy to quickly spot when main lines fail. In rare cases where they aren't seen, a rapidly dropping water level in a nearby tower signals the problem.

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.

Its system currently loses about 8% of the water it puts into its system before it makes it to consumers. While not good, that loss is still far below the national average of 20% most water utilities report, Stewart said.

Some of that loss also comes from other uses beyond line leaks, such as fire hydrant flushes and other instances where city crews use city water to clean out clogged storm drains or for other purposes, Stewart said.

"We have a very good lost water rate, but obviously, we want it to be better and are working on that," Stewart said.

Outside contractors hired to help Edmond repair water leaks

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.

On Oct. 16, a city crew repaired a service line break found under a resident's driveway in about two hours before moving on to a new location. Before leaving the repaired line's location, the crew used fresh dirt to cover the exposed line and fill the larger hole, plus issued a work order to repair the resident's driveway, a job officials said probably would take about 60 days to complete.

From there, it moved to the next break on its list, only to find that location had not yet been marked to show what else might be buried in the leak's area.

"We don't dig in cases where other lines haven't been marked," said Aaron Stewart, Edmond's assistant field services superintendent.

The crew left that location to head to the other side of town where another, priority leak was reported. The crew learned while digging up that leak that a service line under the adjacent street was its source, prompting it to request the use of the city's boring machine so that a new line could be pulled.

"Lots of jobs turn out like this one," Aaron Stewart said. "You never know exactly what you are dealing with until you get the line exposed."

The $500,000 Edmond drew from a reserve fund maintained to support its water system will help pay for bringing in two outside contractors to help address the line breaks.

Half of the $500,000 will be used to pay for increased labor expenses involved in repairing leaks, while the other half will pay for costs to fix sidewalks and driveways where water line repairs are made.

What's causing Edmond's water lines to fail more often?

Several issues, some environmental and some not, are causing water lines in Edmond to fail more often than usual, Keith Stewart said.

On the environmental side, cyclical changes in soil moisture levels and temperatures cause the ground to expand or contract, which puts pressure on lines. 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.

"We have an ongoing line replacement program where priorities are set based on the number of failures that are being seen in any given area," Keith Stewart said.

Rates increase supports debt incurred to improve system

The increase in water and wastewater rates were approved by council members to cover growing operational costs and to retire about $350 million in debt Edmond is carrying to improve its water and wastewater systems.

Edmond is expanding its water treatment plant at Arcadia Lake to boost its capacity, replacing older water lines both because of age and because of updated distribution routes, plus expanding its wastewater treatment system.

The rate increases were recommended by Willdan, a consultant the city regularly uses to evaluate its water and wastewater rates.

The rate increases, approved in September, will help the community maintain a quality service to existing and future customers during an era where water and wastewater service costs are expected to triple over the next 15 years, said Dan Jackson, vice president of Willdan.

"These plans are very important because the industry is changing very rapidly and the city of Edmond is growing, and with that growth comes new expenses and responsibilities to ensure you have sufficient water resources, not only to meet current demands, but future ones, as well," Jackson said.

"Obviously, it is never easy to ask ratepayers to pay more. But there are benefits. It will provide for the utility fund to continue to be self-sufficient," Jackson said.

The adoption of future rates was opposed by only one council member, who said Edmond's rates will have climbed 46% between 2016 and 2027, after the last approved rate increase takes effect.

Tom Robins said he believes Edmond could do a better job of informing residents how the water upgrades will help improve the system. He also expressed frustration that a dashboard system that residents will be able to use to monitor their power and water consumption rates is taking longer than planned to become operational.

"Citizens need the information on what they are actually using if we are going to charge them when they use," Robins told one follower on a social media platform.

Bloyd said he is luckier than many Edmond residents because he lives in an older Timber Ridge home on an acre-size lot that has its own water well he uses as a source to irrigate his yard.

"When they raise the water rates, it doesn't affect us that much," he said.

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Edmond water bills going up Nov. 1 as city deals with more failed lines