Leak Detection: Modern Methods, Cost, and Benefits

Wendell Philips, explorer, scientist, and oil manager, once said that had the Queen of Sheba known what would befall her kingdom after her demise, she would have urged her director of public works to pay greater attention to the Yemen irrigation-water distribution system, its maintenance, and system leak detection. Perhaps because she did not have modern methods of leak detection at her disposal, she did not order improved maintenance; or perhaps the costs were exorbitant relative to other priorities: nonetheless, the indictment of history is that she or one of her successors or counselors failed to bring into perspective the cost-benefit factors of a maintenance program, and a rich kingdom was ultimately forfeited when its water system fell into disrepair. It is to be hoped that archeologists sifting through the antiquities of the future in the areas for which water utility managers are responsible will find a better record. But the potential for neglect is always there. In probably no area of human endeavor is the adage "out of sight, out of mind" more applicable than to the subject of leaks in water mains buried several feet below the surface of the ground. For this reason, it is important to discuss some of the modern techniques for locating leaks, and the reasons why the benefits are well worth the costs of starting or accelerating a leak detection program. Frontinus, in Roman times, used about the same method that most water utilities use to locate leaks