Water Efficiency May 2012 : Page 45
offi cials are willing to hire outside companies to help them update their aging water meters. Companies such as Johnson Con-trols still have to engage in some selling to convince the country’s more skepti-cal managers and superintendents, Bruskiewicz says. “More of the utilities out there are seeing the benefi ts of updating their aging infrastructure and replacing old water meters,” he says. “But you still have members of the old school who say that their meters are just fi ne. Th ey don’t want to shake the apple cart. Th ey’d rather let things go as they are.” Th e country’s diffi cult economic situation, though, actually helps companies sell their services to these sometimes-doubtful offi cials, Bruskie-wicz says. Th at’s because water utili-ties can’t simply raise their customers’ rates to fund system improvements today. Th ey need to fi nd creative ar-rangements to generate extra revenue; performance contracting ranks as such an arrangement. PLUGGING THE LEAKS Outside consultants and engineers can also help water utilities plug the leaks that, along with faulty meters, can cost them serious dollars every year. Utility officials are often surprised after consultants conduct system audits at just how much water they are losing through leaks, Bruskiewicz says. “Sometimes utilities don’t see it right away on their own just how much water they are losing,” he says. “It can be a real eye opener when we perform our audits. Th ey’re surprised, too, when they discover how much money they are losing because of meter inaccuracy. Sometimes that amount can be in the millions of dollars a year. Utilities that have an $8 million, $9 million, $10 mil-lion annual operating budget, can be losing 10% to 20% of that budget on an annual basis just through leaks or inac-curate metering.” A LIFELINE IN MOUNT VERNON Gray, the water superintendent in Mount Vernon, still remembers the bad days. Before he took over as super-intendent, his city issued boil water orders for four of the previous five Thanksgiving holidays. “That didn’t sit well with our resi-dents who were preparing Thanksgiv-ing dinner,” says Gray. Shortly after Gray took over as su-perintendent, the city had a fire in one of its more affluent neighborhoods. When the city’s firefighters opened the hydrant nearest the fire, it was dry — not a drop of water came out. The firefighters, instead, had to run their hoses from a hydrant located more than 1,000 feet away. Gray agreed to take over this struggling water utility, but on one condition: The city had to somehow make the repairs necessary to trans-form a failing water system into one that provided reliable service to the commercial and residential customers who relied on it. “I told them that were going to have to start fixing things,” says Gray. “Problem was, we didn’t have any money. We needed to find creative ways to get money into the system.” The answer came as Gray was attending a conference by the Indiana Rural Water Association. There, he heard an official from Johnson Con-trols give a presentation on perfor-mance contracting. “That had my attention,” says Gray. “We could use performance contracting to use money that we were already spending and use that money to finance repairs to our system.” When Gray returned to Mount Vernon, he took an in-depth look at the water system. The biggest prob-lem? The system’s filtration system backwashed a gallon of water for every two gallons that it treated. Gray says that because of this the system was los-ing up to 50% of its water on a regular basis. “We were putting nearly a mil-lion gallons of backwash water back into the Ohio River,” he says. “It was a nightmare.” But positive changes were com-ing to the system, which serves about 8,000 customers. Johnson Controls would replace the system’s outdated meters. That provided yearly revenues of $150,000 to $200,000, thanks to the increased accuracy of the new meters. This easily pays for the yearly pay-ments of $150,000 that Mount Vernon is making to Johnson for this work, and Mount Vernon is now on pace to pay back the costs of this project in 15 In Brocksville, years. Because the over 4,500 new meters have city is paying for the been installed. project with a tax-free municipal lease, it did not have to go through the bonding process to raise funds for the renova-tions. Gray calls it a “painless process.” Johnson Controls also replaced the city’s filtration system, providing two new filters and a temporary intake structure. This project has shaved about $9,000 each month from Mount Vernon’s power bill. The improve-ments have also cut down the system’s water loss to about 17%, Gray says. “I am so pleased with the way things have worked out that I won’t do anything without performance con-tracting at this point,” says Gray. “The costs are locked in at the beginning of the project. They can’t change unless you change the work or you agree to the change. It’s the best way for us to work.” Mount Vernon is now working on a third round of improvements with Johnson Controls. This phase includes MAY 2012 WATER EFFICIENCY 45
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