LEAK DETECTION & WATER LOSS
Your system is telling you where it leaks. We know how to listen.
Acoustic leak surveys and pinpointing for water districts and municipal systems. Quoted by the mile. Delivered as a written report your board can read.
Every 2 minutes
a water main breaks somewhere in America — 6 billion gallons of treated water lost every day (ASCE)
1 in 3 miles
of US water main is now over 50 years old. Pipes fail, on average, at 53 (Utah State Univ., 800+ utilities)
>20% loss
is typical for small systems — and Kentucky caps recoverable loss at 15% for ratemaking
THE MATH
Non-revenue water is a budget line, not a mystery.
Every system loses some water. The question is how much, and what it costs. Water you produce but never bill runs about 16% in a typical US system — and small systems commonly run over 20%. Of everything lost, 87% is real leakage, not meter error.
In Kentucky the stakes are specific: the PSC caps recoverable water loss at 15%. Lose 25%, and ten points of that loss come out of your budget with no way to bill it back. Surveys typically find a leak every one to three miles of main — a single recovered ¼-inch leak pays back roughly $14,000–$25,600 a year.
METHOD
How we find it.
You don't need to care how the gear works. You need the dig spot, the gallons, and the dollars — here's the short version of how those get onto your report.
Acoustic leak survey
Pressurized water escaping a pipe makes a sound that travels along the pipe wall. We survey your system by listening at valves, hydrants, and service connections — mile by mile, documented as we go.
Leak correlation
Two sensors on either side of a suspect section; the correlator computes the leak's position from the sound's arrival times. One hole to dig instead of three.
Pinpointing
Ground microphone over the pipe path confirms the dig spot to within a couple of feet before a shovel moves.
DELIVERABLE
The report is the product.
Every survey ends in writing: each leak's GPS location, the estimated loss in gallons per minute, the annualized cost at your production rate, and a repair priority list.
It's built to go straight into a board packet or a funding application — USDA Rural Development and SRF applications want documented system condition, and this is that documentation.
18.4 miles surveyed
| # | Location (GPS) | Est. loss | Annual cost | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 36.741, -88.636 · valve V-118 | 22 GPM | $34,700 | High |
| 2 | 36.729, -88.651 · hydrant H-42 | 8 GPM | $12,600 | Med |
| 3 | 36.755, -88.612 · service conn. | 3 GPM | $4,700 | Med |
Recoverable loss identified: 33 GPM ≈ 17.3M gallons/yr
Illustrative sample — not real project data. Annual cost shown at $3.00/1,000 gal.
STRAIGHT ANSWERS
Questions boards ask
Headquartered in Mayfield, Kentucky. On-site anywhere in the Jackson Purchase area and across a large portion of the four-state region.
Do you shut anything down to survey?
No. Surveys run on the live system — no interruption, no advisory.
How is a survey priced?
By miles of main surveyed.
We're under 15% — do we still need this?
That number is unaccounted-for water, not confirmed tightness. Meter error can mask real leakage. An audit sorts real losses from apparent ones.
Can our crew do the repairs?
Yes. The report works either way — our crews or yours.
How fast can you be on-site?
It's always best to have adequate time to plan and have the right equipment and parts available before beginning the work. That said, Reveal's crews work closely with your project's needs to keep things moving on time and prevent budget overruns.
Start with your loss number.
Twelve months of production and billing figures, one phone call. We'll tell you whether a survey makes sense — and if it doesn't, we'll say so.