Our leaky river basin

Editor’s Note: This article originally appeared in The River Reporter of Narrowsburg, N.Y., and is republished with permission.

All water systems leak. And in the Delaware River Basin, the leaks are everywhere.

That was the message delivered by Michael Thompson, senior water resource engineer with the Delaware River Basin Commission, when he presented the findings of a nine-year water audit to the Upper Delaware Council at its June 6 meeting.

More than 14 million people across Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware and New Jersey rely on water from the river. Each gallon moves through the system at a financial and environmental cost. 

Of the 795 million gallons piped daily to taps throughout the basin, roughly 209 million are lost on the way. The DRBC’s water audit, covering 2012 to 2021, seeks to better identify how much might be recovered.

“We don’t know what is recoverable if we don’t know what is being lost,” Thompson said.

The Delaware River Basin serves approximately 160,000 people across three counties in Pennsylvania —Wayne, Monroe, Pike — and Sullivan County in New York.

According to the audit, the smaller water systems that serve these counties lose about 50 percent more water than the basin average.

Thompson said it was unclear why this is the case, and suggested possible factors: Maybe it’s the climate, or the lack of financial resources. Maybe the water supply is sufficient so that leaks are not on anybody’s priorities list. Maybe it’s lack of awareness of the quality of the data.

How does the audit work?

The water audit splits daily water losses into three categories:

• Apparent losses — accounting and metering errors;
• Unavoidable annual real losses — water that will be lost regardless of infrastructure quality; and
• Real losses — leaks.

According to the audit results:

• 27 million gallons per day (MGD) are apparent losses;
• 141 MGD are avoidable real losses;
• 41 MGD are unavoidable annual real losses.

For more information visit the DRBC’s Water System Audits and Water Loss Control page.