Audit finds Austin Water needs to document how it fixes leaks

While Austin Water has worked to limit the amount of water lost through breaks in its water lines, over time the amount of water lost through such leaks has steadily increased, according to an audit discussed at the City Council Audit & Finance Committee on Wednesday.

As the audit team observed, the utility has taken a number of steps to curb water loss and minimize disruptions to homes and businesses. However, Austin Water has not documented the steps it is taking to focus on the most at-risk pipes “and maintain institutional knowledge,” according to the report.

Mayor Kirk Watson said he wanted to “highlight and underline” certain facts that came out in the audit. He said those facts might be helpful for anyone having a discussion about whether the city is taking care of its water, suggesting that he has had such a discussion with an unnamed person.

Auditor Sam Socolow reported that Austin Water lost an estimated 6.5 billion gallons of water in 2021, 6.9 billion gallons in 2022 and 7.1 billion gallons in 2023. This is within industry standards, but Austin needs to lower the amount of loss to help ensure that it has water in the years to come. The audit notes that “repairing and replacing broken water mains are key parts of the plan to help Austin Water reduce water loss,” in line with the city’s Water Forward plan.

Austin Water takes its water from the Colorado River, and it then goes through treatment. From the treatment plant, the water flows into transmission mains and then into distribution mains. From there, the water flows into service lines and on to customers.

Causes of water main breaks include the age of the pipe and the material used, water pressure, soil conditions and construction work. The audit notes that the typical repair takes several hours but large leaks can take much longer and require shutting down road access.

The audit notes that the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies says that “knowledge management is a cornerstone of effective utility management. (Such management) is critical to ensuring reliable utility operations and fostering continuing improvement.”

Austin Water staffers said they would prepare a formal document describing their procedures for detecting leaks in large-diameter pipes in the coming months.

In addition, auditors noted that although the report focused on water mains, repair crews had to respond to breaks in much smaller water lines more frequently. Austin Water’s failure rate for service lines is higher than the industry average. Staff reported to auditors that the cause of many failures was polybutylene lines. While the city discontinued use of that material years ago, lines made of polybutylene continue to account for a disproportionate share of all repairs.

Staff told auditors that they are developing a formal strategy to address the need to replace all the polybutylene lines. Management agreed with auditors that they need to prepare a formal document detailing how they prioritize and plan for large-diameter pipe leak detection. In addition, Austin Water staff agreed they would prepare a formal document detailing the utility’s procedures for prioritizing small-diameter pipe replacement projects.

Although Austin Water has documented some of its policies and procedures for prioritizing small-diameter pipe replacement projects, staff has not formalized the criteria for making such decisions, according to the audit.

“Conversations with staff suggested they are working to establish firmer criteria for these decisions,” according to the auditors.

Austin Water said documents related to both small pipes and mains would be completed by the end of September.

Photo made available through a Creative Commons license.

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