12-16-14 Regular Meeting of the La Porte Area Water Authority

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2. SUPPLY MANAGEMENT ALTERNATIVES a. Universal Metering: All public water supply utilities should master meter their water source. In addition, all users, including the utility itself, should be metered. A regularly scheduled maintenance program of meter repair and replacement also needs to be established to ensure that proper metering is taking place. Metering and meter repair and replacement, can be used in conjunction with other programs such as leak detection and repair and, thereby, save significant quantities of water. Nearly all sales in the various entities are metered. Currently, all cities have some form of regular meter repair and replacement program. All production meters for each city are tested yearly. b. Leak Detection and Repair: A continuous leak detection, location, and repair program can be an important part of a water conservation plan. Utility employees for the La Porte Area Water Authority periodically check for leaks when reading meters and while performing regular maintenance. Major leaks are usually quickly detected by either city employees or customers and are repaired immediately. Soil in the area is generally clay and, therefore, leaks show up at the ground surface quite readily. Leak detection technology is also available in the form of electronic sonic devices. C. Recycling and Reuse: A city or utility should evaluate the potential of recycling and reuse because these methods may be used to increase water supplies in the utility's service area. Reuse can be especially important where the use of treated effluent from an industry or a municipal system or agricultural return flows replace an existing use that currently requires fresh water from a city's or utility's supply. Recycling of in- plant process or cooling water can reduce the amount of fresh water required by many industrial operations. Currently, La Porte has a water reuse program. Because of its size and daily flows, the reuse of treated effluent for processed water has proven quite economical for the City of La Porte, with an estimated three million gallons per month being used for this purpose. The City of La Porte's Municipal Golf Course along with one of the City parks, Little Cedar Bayou, are irrigated with plant effluent. This resulted in a savings of approximately 60,000,000 gallons of potable water in 2005. 7