Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Colchester to Check Water Mains

Colchester will contract with a Chicago-based ADS Environmental Services to check its water mains for leaks. The service will cost $4,950.

The city has 22 miles of PVC water mains and another eight blocks of cast iron water mains.

Mayor Danny Bice says it is cheap insurance.

He says, “For what we're having to pay for water from the City of Macomb, I need to account for everything that we're using. You know, what we're purchasing versus what we're billing.”

Bice says city workers found three leaks in the last month and repaired them. He expects to find more since the city seems to be using more water than it should.

Bice says the survey of the mains should begin within three weeks. The process will take about three days. The company will use ground-penetrating sonar to check the status the mains. It will also check the city's fire hydrants and 50 shut-off valves for leaks. The company performed a similar check in 2009 for the city.

The city has taken a number of other steps to get a clearer picture of its water consumption after it raised water rates by five percent in August. Macomb supplies water to Colchester and raised its rates by the same amount.