85 replies to this topic

[cw68]

I heard an interesting piece of tidbit regarding the City of Folsom and wasted water.

I was told that a few years ago the city hired a consultant to do a study on the efficiency of the water delivery system, i.e. how much water is lost during delivery. I was told that the report indicated that Folsom was loosing nearly 20% of its water through its delivery system. It was explained to me that the an acceptable number should be below 4% for agencies.

I was told this report wasn't broadcast and in fact was sorta kept quiet. I don't know if the council was informed about this. It was said that there hasn't been much activity directed towards reducing this number.

Since I don't seem to have ANY luck at getting RFP's or Consultant reports from the city, maybe with your passion and tenacity, you could get a copy of the report and confirm if what I was told is accurate. At a minimum it would provide you with more knowledge and insight, so it wouldn't be a total wild goose chase.

I'll try and get some more Info for you, but if I ask too many questions people get nervous.

I'll see what I can do...

[Brightside]

Does anyone know if the business complexes/retail centers in town are metered and required to conserve during alerts? We do everything we can to conserve anyway, I'm just curious if the city does anything to enforce conservation of the businesses as well as residents.

[ducky]

Does anyone know if the business complexes/retail centers in town are metered and required to conserve during alerts? We do everything we can to conserve anyway, I'm just curious if the city does anything to enforce conservation of the businesses as well as residents.

All commercial properties are metered. I think their water rates are tied to the size of the pipe leading to the business. I believe apartment complexes are too.

I would hope that if the city sees runoff from commercial landscaping they would also warn and ticket them if it isn't fixed just like they will do for residential. Restaurants right now are serving water only upon request.

[forumreader]

I was told that the report indicated that Folsom was loosing nearly 20% of its water through its delivery system. It was explained to me that the an acceptable number should be below 4% for agencies.

How is water lost, whether 4% or 20%, via the delivery system?

[ducky]

How is water lost, whether 4% or 20%, via the delivery system?

I don't know. I'm thinking leaks or lack of data because we're not metered yet. Here's some blips from the link to the Master Water Update (5/2008) melloguy posted. They used 2005 figures.

"As shown in Table 3-4, the City has increased its water use from 7,034 acre-feet (af) in 1990, to 21,952 af in 2005, approximately a 212 percent increase in water production over the last fifteen years. Compared to the lower population increase over the same period (162 percent), the relatively higher increase in water production may be attributed to an increase in:
• Per capita water demand.
• The non-residential water use component.
• Unaccounted-for water"

I notice two of the three aren't necessarily related to residential use for the increase in water production.

Also:

"Unaccounted-For Water
The difference between the amount of water produced by the City’s water treatment plant and the water actually used by the City’s customers is termed “unaccounted-for water.”
Unaccounted-for water includes unauthorized use, leaks, meter reading errors, and unmetered uses such as fire fighting, distribution system hydrant flushing, and construction activities.
The Tully & Young study estimated the unaccounted-for water demand, shown in Table 3-17. Due to lack of sufficient service metered data, only a rough estimate can be made of the City’s unaccounted-for water."

[forumreader]

Interesting. Thanks, ducky.

[Dave Burrell]

The water police are out and working.

I ran a test sequence on my sprinklers yesterday and today the automatic timer kicked on and watered the lawn (my bad, I forgot to shut off the timer)

On my front porch this morning was a water waste violation notice - needless to say I went and made sure my sprinklers were all shut off again (they had been off for several months)

What I found interesting was that with our budget shortfalls etc - the violation notice was printed in full color on hard stock paper - that had to cost some bucks to print that notice, they could have easily done it with a cheap black and white door hanger at a much cheaper printing cost.

Its nice to get fully color glossy brochures and all.....but for a water violation notice?

[forumreader]

I was wondering whether the "water police" existed or not.

I had an oops incident last week when trying to reset my sprinklers and drip. It was an honest mistake. As soon as I noticed it, I tried shutting it off. It takes a few minutes....So I stood in my front yard, in a state of fear, awaiting the pounce of the water patrol.

Oh the trauma of living in a water police state!!

[Dave Burrell]

I was wondering whether the "water police" existed or not.

I had an oops incident last week when trying to reset my sprinklers and drip. It was an honest mistake. As soon as I noticed it, I tried shutting it off. It takes a few minutes....So I stood in my front yard, in a state of fear, awaiting the pounce of the water patrol.

Oh the trauma of living in a water police state!!

I'm wondering who's policing the water use at our parks and street medians etc? Those places seem to be watered in excess on a weekly basis.

[melloguy]

Thank, melloguy. So I guess to find the population they used you would take 23,000 and divide by 0.5, which means they used a population of 46,000? Our current population even minus 7,500 for the prison would be approximately 62,000 (or possibly more). Do that many people live in the Ashland area?

You don't have to keep answering me, melloguy. I'm just rambling. I guess I should leave it alone because when we're metered we will look really good on paper if those figures aren't right.

Ducky - It's actually been a bit fun. We do water rights, but I am not involved that often and enjoyed the sidetrack from the day-to-day. Doing landfills, stormwater, and mines right now, the fun stuff.

They did use a population just above 40k, not sure how many people north of the river.

I'm stopping the monitoring, just PM me if you (or you, ForumReader) want my input on this or other water issues (excluding the old landfill).

[folsomdude]

So.... WHAT happens in drought years WITHOUT a dam??? All the snow pack would melt, the water would rush straight down the river and be lost for good, for the rest of the summer. Then, right around July, the Delta Smelt and the Delta would dry up and disappear? Maybe, maybe not, I'm sure there were drought years long before the dam was built and they somehow survived.

Looking at a totem pole, you'd see fish at the top, followed by incessant barking dogs, and then humans down toward the bottom somewhere. The "people" making these decisions are words that we're not allowed to use on this forum. Well, I guess the word "liberalism" is allowed, but I can't use the others...

Edited by folsomdude, 01 April 2009 - 07:51 AM.