MORE than leaks in Guyra's water mains cost the township about 3200 litres of potable water per minute, or an estimated 77,000 litres during a 24-hour period.
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That was until Armidale Regional Council engaged Victorian company Detection Services to find the system failures.
Council project officer Mark Byrne said it worked out to be about two of the B-doubles sent up to Guyra each day, and council was about halfway through making the necessary repairs.
"We also found an internal leak at the Guyra school; we notified them straight away and they jumped in and fixed that," he said.
"That one was a bit more significant than some of the others we found.
He said some hydrants had not sealed properly after being used.
"This is an estimate the contractors gave us," he said.
"We haven't got the final data back from the company yet."
Detection Services has finished its work in Guyra and council is outsourcing again to have a company do the same work in Armidale, which has about 330km of pipe compared with Guyra's 50km.
Mr Byrne said the leak detection involved a two or three stage process.
"In Guyra, we installed flow meters in the lines coming out of the reservoirs so we could monitor overnight minimum flows," he said.
"So, after leaks are found and they're fixed, we can compare data to see how much we were losing.
"The equipment they use is listening equipment installed on components, like a stop valve or a hydrant."
Mr Byrne said two listeners were programmed to the type and size of the pipe, and the distance between them.
"They can detect a leak between those two points," he said.
This article first appeared in the Northern Daily Leader.
