Stopping Sinkholes and Street Floods

Reported October, 2007

Toronto -- We all watched the pipes burst underground in New York City. In fact, the National Research Council issued a report saying much of the nation's water distribution system will need to be replaced in the next 30 years. To replace all those pipes would cost billions of dollars. Instead of replacing them, what if you could just fix the problem spots? But locating those spots is the tricky part.

In the United States, just beneath our feet, lie more than one million miles of pipes that bring us water.

"Almost every day, in any given city, anywhere in the states or North America, there is going to be a pipe failure," says Brian Mergelas, Ph.D., physicist at the Pressure Pipe Inspection Company in Toronto.

When those pipes leak and fail, sinkholes, floods, even geysers can happen. Now, Mergelas has a solution.

"This is the only system in the world for looking at leaks in large diameter pipes," he explains.

It's called the Sahara system. Engineers drop this probe into working water mains. The flowing water catches an attached parachute and pulls the probe through the pipe. The probe picks up the unique sound created by a leak ... no matter how small.

"Someone will be listening in real time to the sounds that we are hearing inside the pipe," Mergelas says.

Then, the probe sends out a signal, indicating the exact location of the leak.

"In the states, there are about 5,400 water utilities, and so every one of those utilities could benefit from this," Mergelas says.

Instead of replacing whole mains in aging pipe systems, utilities can simply fix the problem spots, saving money and saving millions of gallons of water that would otherwise be lost.

"These are all hidden leaks. So we are finding them in time for them to actually be proactive to do something about it," Mergelas says.

Right now, 40 cities across the U.S. are proactively managing their pipes with the new system. The system is designed to locate leaks in pipes that are 12 inches in diameter or larger. The system will locate three leaks per mile in any given pipe line.

The American Waterworks Association contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.

Click here to Go Inside This Science or contact:

Dr. Brian Mergelas, President and CEO
Pressure Pipe Inspection Company
(905) 624-1040 x 206
mergelas@ppic.com

American Water Works Association
Denver, CO
(303) 794-7711 or (800) 926-7337
http://www.awwa.org

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