Water auditing is an emerging method of increasing accountability for water
utility systems. A water loss audit according to the methodology of the International
Water Association (IWA) is applied to a major North American water utility, San
Antonio Water System (SAWS), which is already a leader in conservation policies.
However, some modifications to the auditing process are needed for this model’s
application to a North American utility. These improvements to the IWA methodology
include: calculating system input volume from multiple methods of measurements as
well as numerous input points, incorporating deferred storage consumption (in this case
aquifer storage and recovery) principles into the auditing process, calculating a volume
of unavoidable annual real losses (allowable leakage) for a system with varied pressure
zones, and defining procedures for assessing customer meter accuracy for a system.
Application of the improved IWA audit method to SAWS discovered that its system
input volume is being significantly undermeasured by current practices, current water
loss control programs are very effective, customer accounting procedures result in large
volumes of apparent loss, and current customer meter accuracy is adequate but could be marginally improved. Application of the audit process to the utility is beneficial because
it facilitates increased communication between utility departments, assesses
shortcomings in current policies, pin-points areas needing increased resources, and
validates programs that are performing well.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-1087 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Meyer, Sarah Ruth |
| Contributors | Brumbelow, Kelly |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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