The effects of running water over time can be dramatic. Sometimes, water-created erosion can create beautiful natural settings like Palo Duro Canyon in Amarillo. However, the same qualities that carve through stone over time can also wear away at utility pipes. Water flowing through high-volume water pipes is under high pressure, creating internal stress. Pipes are often buried underground, where the soil pushes against the pipes, creating external stress. These combined elements can cause pipes to weaken over time, resulting in leaks or breaks.
Water lost through undetected leaks presents a loss of both revenue and vital resources, so water providers develop multiple strategies to not only find active leaks but also to detect pipe segments that could be vulnerable to future leaks or failure.
One of the key programs implemented by NTMWD to mitigate water loss is the Linear Asset Management Program (LAMP). Since 2020, initial inspections using clean, free-swimming tools within the pipes have provided information about leaks in 200 miles of potable water pipes and structural integrity of more than 100 miles of prestressed concrete cylinder pipes (PCCP) carrying potable water.
“Now that we have at least one inspection on all the potable water PCCP, we will continue inspecting them on about a five-year cycle, depending on condition,” said Jayson Melcher, Water Conveyance System Manager. “As we make repairs and perform additional inspections, we hope for that inspection interval to increase.”
After the structural inspections, consultants use the data for structural modeling that identifies which pipe segments need repairs, and which can remain in service until the next inspection.
“Pipes are nominally designed for about a 50-year useful life,” said Melcher. “Some of ours have exceeded that. But if we do these structural inspections and they check out, we don't need to spend hundreds of millions of dollars replacing entire pipelines through what's now urbanized area. We can go in and surgically replace the stressed segments at a much lower cost and then restore the service life of that entire pipeline.”
The LAMP program also lessens water loss through leak detection, helping conserve the water already in the system.
“We're being proactive to find leaks and repair them in a shorter amount of time,” said Melcher. “So, we're reducing that unaccounted-for-water. Through the LAMP program and other maintenance efforts, the District has achieved an unaccounted-for water loss of 2.8%.”
Repairs and maintenance of water infrastructure make up a large part of the cost of providing water to our Member Cities and Customers. LAMP allows the District to target the areas that need repairs, ensuring construction funds are used wisely.