The City of Bloomington doesn't know what's happening to up to 3 million gallons of water per day — and it could be more during the summer. An aging treatment and distribution system is a root cause.
"Right now, we have a 30% loss rate from when water leaves the water plant to what we are actually billing for," said City Manager Jeff Jurgens. “It’s a staggering number.”
The city pumps an average of 10 to 10.5 million gallons per day, and up to 12 million gallons at some points in the summer.
Jurgens said aged water mains may be the major source of water loss.
"Water is escaping from these hundred-year-old pipes. We get in there and replace them — that's going to help everybody," said Jurgens.
There is a drought right now.
The city is asking residents and businesses to use voluntary conservation measures, with water levels at Lake Bloomington and Evergreen Lake down more than 10 feet. If the deficit hits 12 feet, mandatory water use reduction provisions could go into effect.
Jurgens acknowledged asking for personal sacrifice and conservation when the city doesn’t know what’s happening to a lot of the water that it makes drinkable is a bad look.
“That's why this is truly a community effort," he said. "The city is trying to catch up and trying to make improvements to the water system and with this extreme drought, we're having to ask the community to pitch in as well and conserve as much water as they can right along with us.”
A lot of money is at stake, too.
“There's a combination. One is the thought of the loss. Being in a drought, every drop counts. And then the loss of the revenue of going into the ground or going through someone's house, and we're not getting compensated,” said Deputy City Manager Sue McLaughlin. “It's in the millions.”
Jurgens said the water plant and the two lakes have served the community well.
“When it was built and created, it was a generational project, but it's now 100 years old, so we have got to invest some money to tighten it up, to make sure it's in good condition,” he said, adding the city plans to spend $400 million on the water system over the next decade.
“I can't speak to why 20 years ago some of this didn't happen, or why 10 years ago some of this didn't happen, but it is certainly a priority for the city right now, and it is a priority for our water department to catch up on these issues and to correct these issues,” said Jurgens.
Next year’s budget alone calls for $82 million in water system spending, paid for through bond issues.
“This is why we put the rate structure, the water rate structure, into place a couple of years ago. We're now in a position because of that rate structure to start doing some of these major projects,” said Jurgens.
A chunk of that spending will go to removing an estimated 10,000 lead water lines to homes the government has mandated to be removed over 10 years; $60 million, though, is for systemwide improvements.
Leaky mains
The city is attempting to find out where leaks are happening.
“We just finished a six-figure contract with RJN [a consultant]. They went around town and did sonic leak detection to tell us areas where they thought there were leaks that we weren't aware of on our mains,” said McLaughlin.
The report is not yet complete.
Some pipes are 120 years old, and perhaps older.
“We actually have on Route 51 some pipes from 1895. I don't know if they're wooden, but certainly it's not out of the realm,” said McLaughlin, adding the city did recently find a couple wooden sewer lines during a replacement project.
Water meters
The city has more than 30,000 metered water accounts. They vary in type and quality of the hardware used to measure usage. There are only a few manual meters left that have to be read by sight. Some are in basements.
“We've been really going after those, especially because it's time consuming and loss of revenue,” said McLaughlin.
“We’d been trickling along and then we started hitting it hard,” said Jurgens.
A blind spot in Bloomington water use comes from what are called “dead meters.” It’s not as significant as the actual water loss from the aged system, but it is important.
“We currently have 223 “dead” meters — 179 are residential meters. Our focus is on the larger non-residential meters right now, and then we’ll replace the residential, if they’re not being replaced in the course of other business. In the meantime, those homes are at least paying an estimated read,” said McLaughlin.
People and businesses in buildings with dead meters may essentially be using water for free because the city can't bill for it. Some of the buildings may not be occupied. The city said a couple buildings with dead meters have been city- owned.
“The dead meters will be big [in revenue] because we have a couple of large commercial ones. That's a lot. We're down to maybe a handful,” said McLaughlin. “We've had everything from the health industry to private industry to commercial business.”
Most meters are read electronically by city workers driving by a house. The most advanced type is called “radio read” that doesn't require a worker to drive by.
“They're ultrasonic. We have antennas on tops of some of the buildings. It sends a signal to the antenna and it downloads onto our computer. It's much more accurate. It saves on staff time. We're slowly switching those out,” said McLaughlin, who estimated about quarter of city meters still need to be switched out.
Jurgens said the city also is exploring the idea of upgrading meters to a version that sends data in real time instead of periodically, and lets the city know whether a home has a leak or a small drip. It measures daily changes in use. That has the potential to reduce system losses.
“Staff will go in and look sometimes [at usage by account], just to spot check, but right now it's more reactive than proactive,” said Jurgens.
He said it would take millions to widely adopt that technology.
Other system upgrades
The city has planned a variety of other projects to “catch up and correct some of this, and bring our water system into the 21st century,” said Jurgens.
The city plans to spend $10 million on the water treatment plant at Lake Bloomington, starting in spring 2027.
“Our original treatment plant was built in the 1920s out there at the lake," he said. "Some of the electrical is almost that old, and so we're going to start a project that's part of the system wide, that's being approved in the budget."
Power use at the treatment plant may become more efficient following that project.
The city also plans new elevated tanks and lift stations. An aeration project will help prevent future algae blooms and related taste issues for city water.
Jurgens said the city is hoping some grants and government-backed loan forgiveness programs will defray a portion of the capital costs.
