Forty-eight litres per second, 2,880 litres per minute, 172,800 litres per day and 1.5 billion litres per year - enough to fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool more than 605 times - is also the amount of water the District of Squamish is allowing to seep into the ground because of leaky infrastructure.
Spot testing this past summer and the "terrifying" infrastructure report presented to council on Feb. 15 indicated that the results of a district tendered project to analyze water loss wouldn't be pretty, but council members were unprepared for losses of this magnitude.
"This is a substantial amount of water loss," Coun. Ron Kirkham said as council received the report on Tuesday (March 22), noting two reservoirs built into rocks that are losing 16 million litres of water each per year.
"Has this been the case since these reservoirs were created? Why hasn't anything been done?"
Barnett explained that until now, water loss in the community has never been examined in detail.
"We don't know how long these leaks have been going on because no one's analyzed it before us," said Barnett.
"My guess is they've been leaking for a very long time."
Municipal infrastructure engineer Jenni Chancey presented the detailed report from Kerr Wood Leidal Associates to council.
"The water-loss investigation started in June 2010 and the results presented in this report will help us develop a water-loss management strategy for 2011 and future years," she said.
She said the main objectives of the management program were to locate and fix leaks, train district public works staff on techniques and equipment used to find leaks and install equipment to collect water data for future water auditing purposes.
In 2010, four leaks were identified and repaired. Since then, three more leaks have been confirmed that will be repaired in 2011.
Chancey reiterated Barnett's point that water loss is being addressed for the first time.
"Before commencing on these tasks, we needed to complete a water audit using a top-down approach due to lack of historical data in the system," she said.
Three major indicators of water loss and infrastructure condition were calculated - the current annual real loss, the infrastructure leakage index and the unavoidable background real losses.
The current annual real loss calculated that Squamish is losing 1.5 billion litres per year, and the infrastructure leakage index for Squamish is 8.7.
According to the American Water Works Association (AWWA), the authoritative resource on safe water, 8.7 is quite high.
"Anything above eight means we have extremely high levels of leakage," said Chancey. "A target of three is recommended for Squamish."
Spot testing was not encouraging, either - last summer each neighbourhood was partitioned into sections, and 14 of the 16 areas showed high water loss, according to the consultants.
At that time, Ryan Lesychen at KWL Associates said the highest water-loss areas appear to be in the Industrial Park and downtown.
Chancey acknowledged that fixing the system would require substantial investment - "at a variable $32 million, the district will face significant operating increases over the next 20 years, as well as an estimated $8.8 million capital cost."
"This expansion will be required in the near future unless demand can be significantly reduced through water-loss management strategy."
That's why the long-term financial benefits of this program will be rewarding, she said.
She used the March 1 water main break on the west side of Highway 99 near the Garibaldi Springs Golf Course as an example.
"The emergency leak on March 1 cost $35,000," Chancey said. "So if we can reduce the number of emergency breaks, we'll have more money for operating and capital."
She said having a water auditing system that keeps track of water pressure in pipes would allow district staff to identify a leak immediately instead of only when reservoir levels fall.
The March 1 break happened around 5 p.m. but was not identified until 9 p.m. when the Alice Lake reservoir reached a critical low and sounded the alarm.
"We want to spend money proactively as opposed to reactively," Chancey said.
"Fixing leaks will help us offset our capital expansion and allow us to get more out of our current system."
She said for every million litres of water saved, the offsetting cost of expansion would be $2,500.
Barnett said if Squamish brings its infrastructure leakage index down to the recommended level of three, it will result in an annual savings of $3 million per year.
On that note, Coun. Patricia Heintzman asked how much work would have to be done, and water saved, to help Squamish avoid having to build additional reservoirs such as the one slated to be built on the Oceanfront peninsula in coming years.
Barnett said not building more reservoirs is a lofty goal.
"Right now we're barely keeping our reservoirs full during the summer months due to leakage," he said.
"The last few years our reservoirs haven't even been full enough to meet firefighter equipment standards."
The 1.5 billion litres per year doesn't include the amount of water Squamish residents actually consume, and Heintzman said in addition to addressing the leakage, the district should focus on educating residents about water conservation.
"Awareness of consumption needs to play a role in this as well," she said. "In the summer I see people out there watering their asphalt driveways."
Barnett said education and awareness "are on the work plan, but they are not the priority right now.
"Dealing with the district system will have a far greater impact than the education component."
Coun. Paul Lalli made a motion to receive the report.
"I'm pleased we're moving forward with this as water conservation is a priority of this council and the community," he said.
Coun. Rob Kirkham seconded the motion and it was carried unanimously.
