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Las Vegas Leak Monitoring Project

The Las Vegas Valley Water District (LVVWD) leak monitoring project is a water conservation showcase site for The Global City Teams Challenge, a collaborative network of project teams or “action clusters”, working on innovative applications of Internet of Things (IoT) technologies within a smart city / smart community environment. The program is administered by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The project team set out to demonstrate that new technology approaches which are available today can help support a more sustainable plant.

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Introduction

Leaks, big and small, waste water. For ratepayers, they can drive up the cost of water bills and in large pipelines, they can erupt into a major disaster. Most of the LVVWD’s known water losses are due to failed small diameter service lines. Newer more advanced LTE enabled acoustical sounding technology is enabling the District to permanently monitor for leaks on one of the community’s older and most in demand water lines located in the heart of the Las Vegas Strip.

  • 7.5 Million

    Gallons of Water Per Day to Resorts & Attractions

  • Industry:City & Community
  • Population:> 1,000,000
  • Location:Las Vegas, Nevada

Advancing Innovative Water Technologies

LVVWD deployed Mueller Water Products’ EchoShore®-TX permanent leak detection platform. The smart technology enabled LVVWD to better understand and manage the critical water supply pipeline and to reduce any potential water loss due to leakage. The monitoring platform combines proven acoustic leak detection technology with leading-edge AT&T wireless connectivity and visual end-user dashboards to create a cost-effective monitoring solution. In Las Vegas, 13 permanent acoustic sensors are monitoring 3 miles of the aging pipeline installed under Las Vegas Boulevard, from Sunset to Flamingo Roads.

“When this technology came along, it allowed us to think outside the box and say, really, the pipes don’t fail catastrophically all of a sudden. They fail by having a very small leak which developed to a larger leak which eventually develops into a sink hole. So by having this technology we’re allowed to monitor the pipe on a continuous basis to detect those small leaks before they get to be big leaks, and then be able to schedule an act and make repairs as needed. This allows us to extend the life of our pipes significantly by doing this,” said Charles Scott, LVVWD Engineering Project Manager.

The NIST water sustainability project incorporates AT&T wireless connectivity to collect, transmit and manage data from the EchoShore®-TX monitoring nodes. AT&T cellular wireless connectivity was selected as it’s secure, readily available and low cost for connecting Industrial Internet of Things like the sensor used in the EchoShore-TX system.

Aging water infrastructure challenges will continue to escalate as buried pipelines throughout the nation near the end of their useful life, resulting in water loss, inefficient use of energy and property
damage. Simply replacing or allowing these assets to run to failure is cost-prohibitive and not a sustainable infrastructure management approach. New pipeline monitoring technology combined with wireless communications and data visualization as demonstrated in the NIST Global City Teams Challenge are enabling utilities to cost-effectively gather more data to make more informed decisions that extend asset life and reduce operating risks.

This technology allows us to be proactive. It saves the Valley Water by detecting those leaks and being able to fix them before they go on for potentially years unnoticed.

Charles Scott
LVVWD Engineering Project Manager

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