CPM Pipelines is honored to share the news about a North Texas municipality that took action and implemented a cutting edge in-line inspection technology to inspect a critical raw water supply line and support efforts to conserve a dwindling natural resource, water. So grab an ice cold glass of water, put your feet up, and enjoy the read.

New water in the earth’s atmosphere doesn’t exist. Let that sink in. Regardless of your beliefs, the unescapable truth is the same water the earth’s atmosphere began with is the water that’s slowly dwindling due to natural disasters, climate change, aged failing infrastructure, and water waste to name a few. The finite supply of water is becoming more evident as different entities and stakeholders vie to secure future water supply for their respective constituents. The dwindling of Lake Mead and Lake Powell and the ensuing battles among the seven states that are signatories to the 100-year old Colorado River Compact highlight the competitiveness to search for future water supplies, and how glib the future might be if water demands and infrastructure continue to be poorly managed. 

The State of Texas is no different in this regard. In many ways, the climate in Texas forced this issue to be a priority long before it was the popular topic it is today. While unpredictable in terms of exact timing, droughts are a mainstay of Texas. According to the Texas Water Development Board’s Technical Note 21-01 entitled “Evaporative Losses from Major Reservoirs in Texas”, data collected for 114 reservoirs over the course of 18 years (2001 – 2018) shows the average net water loss to evaporation for each reservoir to be 1.91 million acre-feet (6.224 x 1011 gallons) per year. This factor alone solidifies the logic behind drought contingency planning for entities dependent on surface water and well water alike as wells are less likely to recharge when surface supplies diminish. Some entities have employed technologies that convert wastewater into potable water (toilet to tap) while other stakeholders are building large pipelines to reservoirs far away from their own service areas. Still, some municipalities and stakeholders are asking themselves, “what else can we do to ensure that our constituents have constant access to potable water?”.   

One answer can be found in the existing infrastructure that supports the transmission and distribution of potable water to end users. Ultimately, it does no good to secure water rights if water is being lost in the transmission of raw water to the treatment plant and distribution from the treatment plant to the end user(s). This highlights another area in which Texas is much like the rest of the Country. Much of the infrastructure currently in place is at the end of its useful life, but there is nothing concrete to tell governing officials “You must replace this 30-inch cast iron pipe that was installed in 1954”. This leaves city staff’s and their consultants with a gut-wrenching prospect: “Do we proactively inspect a critical line based on it’s age or do we wait until it starts failing and hope that it isn’t a catastrophic failure?”. This is admittedly an over-simplification of the problem, but the over-arching question remains.