| In a part of the country where water is as precious as gold, Forest View Acres Water District is investigating where 100,000 gallons of water disappeared to on the night of Jan. 1, and where thousands more gallons have escaped to since. Contracted FVAWD Water Operations Manager Dan LaFontaine of Independent Water Services, announced at the FVAWD board meeting Jan. 26 that he has been searching the district's pipelines for a solution.
"Nothing was able to be found," LaFontaine said.
He said, after inspecting all the lines and connections he knows about, he has not found any leaks. After the loss of water Jan. 1, which equated to a loss of about 200 gallons per minute over a period of eight hours, the district's surface plant has registered about 75 gallons per minute of water being used. The average water flow out of the surface plant this time of year is 35-40 gallons of water per minute, although it can reach up to 50-55 gallons per minute.
"(The system) can't keep up," LaFontaine said.
He said that in a larger district, this extra loss would not be a huge deal, but due to the size of FVAWD's system, it does make a significant difference.
"It's pretty typical (to have leaks in the system that are difficult to find) for water systems," LaFontaine said.
He said he has worked in larger districts where the system had a leak for seven or eight months before it was found.
"This district is so old, we don't know all the cross sections," LaFontaine said.
He added that there are lines that lead outside the district, and said the water may be going someplace outside the district.
"Some of the old-timers here believe there was a cross-section between our water line and Palmer Lake's (at one time)," said FVAWD Assistant Secretary Ketch Nowacki.
Nowacki thought this should be looked into as a possible source of the problem.
"Somebody in Palmer Lake would know (if the water from the district spilled out there)," Nowacki said.
LaFontaine said he will have to wait until after meters are read for this payment cycle to find out if there is, in fact, an unaccounted for loss of water somewhere in the system.
"It could very well be our people are using more water than they normally do," he said.
In other news:
Forest View Acres Water District Assistant Secretary John Anderson resigned from the board of directors at the board meeting on Jan. 26. Anderson's term was to be up in May of 2008.
Anderson resigned due to the extensive traveling he will be doing this year, including a trip to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy as a a sports psychologist for Team USA.
The board will accept letters of intent to join the board until their next meeting, Feb. 23, at which they will appoint a new member. |
