Lost water costing Burke County $2.25M annually

Burke County cannot account for nearly $2.25 million worth of the water and sewer service it pays for each year, according to results of a study due to be released next month.

County officials became aware of the problem two years ago when newly hired County Manager Brian Epley discovered the discrepancy. Calculations placed the cost of the loss at $1.5 million in sewer fees and $750,000 on water annually.

Collectively, this represents about 35% of the water the county uses for services. The loss is classified as “unaccounted for,” Epley said.

“So, maybe it’s leaking, or maybe we’re not billing, or maybe our meters are broken,” Epley said. “Our water and sewer has been failing for some time. We’re a purchased-water, purchased-sewer system. We buy more water than we sell, and we treat more sewer than we consume, and that’s because of infrastructure challenges.”

Burke County, which purchases its water, buys 30% more water than it uses, and pays for 52% more sewer than it uses.

The Burke Board of Commissioners subsequently hired Willis Engineering of Charlotte to conduct an AIA — asset infrastructure assessment. That study is nearly complete, and its findings will be presented during the board’s annual budget workshop March 6 and 7.

A $500,000 grant from the General Assembly paid for the assessment.

The study will help officials pinpoint the leaks.

Malfunctioning meters and aging pipes are possible culprits, so part of the study included flow-meter testing and smoke testing to determine where the leaks are.

“We’ve been able to identify some of these areas, but these studies will help us determine where the others are,” said board chair Jeff Brittain.

Brittain feels infiltration from rainwater is the biggest problem on the sewer side, and said local municipalities’ systems could be part of the problem.

“You don’t need to be treating rainwater, and so you’ve got to find out where all this infiltration takes place, and likely, some of our municipals are going to have to do something,” he added.

Commission vice chair Phil Smith said the problem isn’t new.

“I think it’s important to know that this has been going on for a long time, not just since the county hired him as county manager and he discovered it, because he’s proactive and trying to save the county money and make the county money,” Smith said.

Burke provides water to 2,230 residential customers and sewer service to 225. Most of the customers are located on the eastern side of the county.

Epley said the county acts as a sewer transfer station for several municipal water systems. They collect their own sewer, but it has to go through the county’s pump station and then to a treatment facility in Hickory.

The baseline figure for one of those municipal systems in dry conditions is 40 gallons per minute. During one rain event last August, it jumped to 1,100 gallons a minute.

“County taxpayers are paying for those municipal discrepancies, but the reality is, unless you monitor, manage, and test it, you don’t know,” Epley said.

Epley added water and sewer infrastructure is vital to the county’s prospects of attracting business and people to Burke, whose economy has struggled since the textile and furniture industries began to dry up in the 1990s.

“It’s critical that the county be in the water and sewer market because there are properties that are outside the city limits that can be used for economic development and industrial development,” Epley said.

Manufacturing and housing could be positioned in places where land is available, but water and sewer need to be in place first, Epley said. The study is also expected to give the commission ideas on how to move forward with the expansion of both services.