Water loss is the difference between the total amount of water a utility produces and the total amount of authorized water use a utility records. Water loss includes things like leaks on storage tanks, water lost when a pipe breaks, and unpermitted hydrant use.
The largest sources of water loss in Portland are leaks and main breaks in our 2,250-mile pipe system. Most of our water loss comes from small, underground leaks.
Water loss = electricity use = carbon emissions
Although Portland is fortunate to have plenty of water for our homes and businesses, water loss isn’t only a water supply issue.
We’re committed to reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A key strategy in our net zero plan is reducing our electricity use, which is our biggest source of carbon emissions. We use electricity to treat and move our water—including lost water.
About 8 percent of the Water Bureau’s carbon emissions are associated with water loss. This means that reducing water loss is one way we can reduce our carbon footprint.
Enter: Satellites
Most of our water loss comes from leaks that are small, underground, and hard to find. To save time and money, we’re turning to space.
In summer 2023, we used satellite technology to scan our entire water system for underground leaks. Over the course of a year, we found and fixed around 280 leaks detected by the satellite scan. That’s almost 6 times as many leaks as we usually find using other leak survey methods!
The satellite scans and resulting repair work reduced our water loss by about 365 million gallons compared to the previous year. That’s equal to the amount of water used by about 8,000 Portland homes in a year! Thank you, satellites!
(You can read more about the satellite leak detection project in this post from March 2024.)
So, what about that robot*?
Remember our goal to reach net zero emissions by 2050? Well, reaching that goal means we need to track our emissions. This tells us how much progress we’ve made and where we still need to improve. We’ve been tracking our emissions since 2007. You can learn more in our carbon footprint reports and our new interactive emissions dashboard.
We knew our satellite leak detection project had reduced our annual water loss by 365 million gallons. But how much did that reduce our carbon emissions? To find out, we turned to another high-tech solution: the IWA LEI robot*. This simple and effective tool helped us quickly calculate the carbon impact of the satellite project.
The results are in: Our satellite leak detection work reduced our carbon emissions by around 62 tons (56 metric tons). That’s equivalent to the emissions from driving a typical car for about 143,200 miles!
*Our technical staff want us to tell you that, technically, it’s not a “robot.” Technically, it’s more like a fancy Excel spreadsheet called the International Water Association’s (IWA) Leakage Emissions Initiative (LEI) Calculator. Phew, what a mouthful! “Robot” is a lot catchier, don’t you think? Would you even be reading this if we’d led with “International Water Association’s Leakage Emissions Initiative Calculator”?
We didn’t think so. But if you want the full technical details, you can learn more in this case study report: