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Utility uses drones to save billions of gallons of water

By: Roxanne Boychuk
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... Veolia North America - whose aging system of North Jersey drinking water pipes once leaked so badly the company lose up to 25% of the water it treated before it ever reached customers - has saved over 3 billion gallons in recent years by flying drones to detect leaks using thermal imagery.
..... Thermal imagery taken by drones can highlight the temperature difference between the escaped water and the surrounding ground.
..... If there is a leak, the released water will have cooled the surrounding ground in the summer months and warmed the surrounding ground in the winter months, said Doug Reger, director of asset and workforce management at Veolia North America, who runs the drone program.
..... The drone program has been one key bit of technology adopted by Veolia to address a longstanding problem that many water provides in the state face. Because numerous water pipes are so old, they are prone to leaking.
..... A state report issued in 2018, for instance noted that New Jersey American Water, the largest water utility in the state, had 8,700 miles of pipes, with more than half installed between 1870 and 1960. About 15% were 100 to 140 years old.
..... The Natural Resources Defense Council once estimated that the state lost 130 million gallons a day of treated water - enough to fill the Empire State Building about every two days.
..... That not only wastes money and natural resources, it also causes road detours, boil-water advisories and inadequate water pressure to fight fires.
..... New Jersey American water has estimated that it costs 10 times more to make emergency repairs that to conduct routine infrastructure upgrades.
..... That is why Veolia has embraced drone technology to help identify problems before they get too large.
..... Veolia also has roughly 2,300 sensors that actively listen for leaks and pinpoint their locations, said Debra Vial, director of communication at the for-profit water utility.
..... Veolia has replaced 17,000 service lines since 2019, finding and fixing leaks along the way, Vial said.
..... Veolia, formerly called Suez, manages 2,500 miles of underground water mains and over 270,000 underground service lines across New Jersey, Vial said.
..... Veolia's system supplies water to 800,000 residents in Bergen and Hudson counties.
..... "Underground leaks can sometimes go undetected for extended periods , potentially leading to significant breaks," she said.
..... "In other instances, we might observe water bubbling to the surface, but pinpointing the exact location of the break can be challenging."
..... A Veolia drone detected a leak in Washington Township after previous excavations turned up dry holes.
..... The company also recently detected leak in Hackensack where water consistently surfaced in the middle of a road.
..... No clear source could be found, but drone thermal cameras detected temperature anomalies in an underground location, pinpointing the leak.
..... Veolia also users drones to conduct tank inspections. A drone's small structure and camera can reach parts of water tanks that are otherwise difficult to analyze in person.
..... "Historically, what you would have to do is either get scaffolding or, depending on the tank, you might have to have somebody rigged ad harnessed and rip down the sides of the tanks," said Reger, the Veolia asset director.
..... The cameras pick up on deterioration or corrosion starting to from in tanks. they also allow Veolia to perform more frequent checks and identify potential issues early, saving money from costly repairs in the long run, Vial said.
..... Drone technology also helps identify encroachments on watershed property and easements.

Now starting to rely on artificial intelligence

..... Now, Veolia is starting to sue artificial intelligence to help in these inspection processes.
..... AI helps identify patterns in images to detect concerns, mainly in tanks.
..... This speeds up the process of identifying issues.
..... "By looking at historical pictures and imagery to most current imagery ... [we can determine] what's the difference between those two images to help us identify if there;s something, rather than having an individual person [go through the] footage," Reger said.
..... The AI will simply condense a four-hour inspection to one hour by helping the analyzer go through all the footage, Reger said. There are many ways Veolia works to monitor water issues above and underground, with drones being one of those assets
..... With the AI being integrated as another, Veolia hopes to prevent more long-lasting problems.
..... "We're looking at multiple different ways of identifying leaks through sensors, and this is just one tool that we were utilizing to help us identify," Reger said.

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