CITY OF BURTON REPORTING MAJOR IMPROVEMENTS IN REDUCING WATER LOSS

  

City of Burton officials report considerable strides in rectifying the city’s water loss problems.

At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Mayor Karen Buck broke down what steps the city is taking to find water loss issues and address them.  She also discussed how those efforts have led to recorded water loss dropping from as high as 74.5 percent in September to just 6.5 percent in January.

Some of the city’s points of emphasis for ensuring water is accounted for include replacing old residential and commercial water meters, installing meters where there previously were none, identifying the users of the most and least amount of water, and working with the Burton Volunteer Fire Department to report water usage. 

Buck said she hopes to eventually establish a water and sewer subcommittee that would provide much-needed oversight over the water supply and report findings to the council.  She explained that ever since the city took over Burton Water Supply in 1984, there has been little information documented or retained on water policies or procedures.

The city has asked for – and received – a copy of the guidelines and bylaws of the Chappell Hill Water Supply Corporation, as well as fee schedules. 

One item of note from Buck’s report involved her discovery late last month of a running faucet nearby the wastewater treatment plant while she was looking at the damage to a fence following an accident. 

According to Buck, the running faucet led to the meter recording 6,500 gallons of usage in October, 0 gallons in November, and 655,700 gallons in December.  She said that equates to about 19 days of a faucet being left on, and is equal to $2,167 in lost income for the city.  She added that the water spigot is connected to the Texas Cotton Gin field account, who has agreed to lock it and only turn it on when needed. 

Further, around the time the faucet was found, it was discovered that the wastewater treatment plant did not have a meter of its own, and that the one thought to belong to the plant was actually for the Cotton Gin, which now has three meters on its account.

Water loss tracked for 2023 peaked at 74.5 percent in September, and was its lowest at 54.8 percent in November.  The city called its software company to confirm that the 6.5 percent water loss figure for January was correct, and was told its efforts to account for more usage is what led to the massive reduction.