Stanley leaders say they’re scrutinizing why the amount of water they’re purchasing from a neighboring city doesn’t seem to be the amount they’re getting.
The numbers alone suggest a water loss, in gallons, as high as 34 percent to 38 percent dating back to 2008. Stanley Town Manager Heath Jenkins said the city is confident that’s not a legitimate reflection of the problem, and that Mount Holly — which provides their water — is also not to blame.
Jenkins primarily wants to reassure residents at this point that they haven’t been paying more than they should for the utility. Faulty meters and other issues could be painting an inaccurate picture, he said.
“I don’t want the public to think there’s a large-scale overbilling of water,” he said. “Based on what we’re looking at, if anything, there would maybe have been some underbilling.”
The mystery of unaccounted water is something Stanley leaders have traced back several years, Jenkins said. It’s not unusual, particularly in a situation where one town gets its water via a transmission line from a neighbor, he said.
“Everybody has water loss issues,” he said. “The standard is 10 to 15 percent, or even up to a 20 percent loss.”
But a loss as high as Stanley has been experiencing is more alarming, he said.
Stanley began buying water from Mount Holly some 15 years ago, after a creek dried up near the smaller town’s water plant. A transmission line now delivers water to a tank near the Buckeye community, where it is fed out to Stanley customers. High-tech meters track how much is flowing from one city to the other.
Stanley pays $3.35 per 1,000 gallons of water — the same rate Mount Holly charges its residents. Stanley then sells that water to its own customers, charging more for those who live outside town.
Stanley pays its neighbor about $750,000 for water each year, which equates to about 223,880 gallons of water, Jenkins said. But anywhere from 76,000 to 85,000 gallons of that has gone unaccounted for in recent years.
Stanley leaders recently met with an official from the N.C. Rural Water Association to discuss the concern. No formal audit of the water system has been conducted, but it may be soon if the town decides to hire the NCRWA as a third-party to explore the problem, Jenkins said.
Water is often used and not accounted for when cities flush hydrants, he said. It can also go unmeasured when a city uses water at its own facilities, such as to irrigate lawns or fields. Stanley has sought to install more water meters at its own city facilities that use the resource in recent years, Jenkins said.
Mount Holly Utilities Director James Friday said they stand ready and willing to help Stanley pinpoint the problem. Jenkins said they expect to reach some answers soon.
“We don’t think we’re losing all our water through a leak,” he said. “But at this point, we just don’t know.”
Jenkins said town leaders have put the highest priority on finding out what’s amiss.
“Even if we inherited a problem that was already there, the bottom line is it’s our responsibility to get it fixed,” he said.
You can reach Michael Barrett at 704-869-1826 or twitter.com/GazetteMike.