Water Audit Manual for Utilities

Water Use Auditing: A guide to accurately measure water use and water loss New Mexico Rural Water Association www.nmrwa.org This manual was created with funding and support from: New Mexico Department of Finance and Administration New Mexico Office of the State Engineer Author: Matthew Holmes New Mexico Rural Water Association 2007 Edition Contents Introduction ……………………………………………... 1 How to Use This Guide ………………………………….3 Introduction to Water Use Audits ………………………. 4 The Standard Water Balance …………………………… 6 Step 1: Source Evaluation …………………………. 8 Step 2: Calculate Authorized Consumption ……….. 10 Step 3: Evaluate Apparent Losses …………………. 12 Step 4: Evaluate Real Losses ……………………… 14 Performance Measures ………………………………….. 16 Worksheets ……………………………………………… 18 Resources ……………………………………………….. 21 Glossary ………………………………………………… 22 Introduction 1 New Mexico’s drinking water and wastewater systems will need to implement new administrative systems and management tools to allow them to adapt to the increased regulatory requirements and environmental complexities they face. These new tools will allow the systems to operate on a “business model” for long term sustainability to help address the issues of: new and stricter regulatory requirements, growing populations, increased service demands, limited water supplies, a highly variable climate, ...