Kansas City is advancing technology to detect fire hydrant leaks

Lou Rossetti, senior vice president of sales North America at Orbis Intelligent Systems, said acoustic, fixed pipe monitoring technology that uses fire hydrants to accommodate multi-sensor devices has already found more than 30 leaks at Kansas City Water.

Non-revenue water loss in Kansas City, Missouri is being reduced through a successful collaboration between the community and California-based technology company Orbis. The partnership began in September 2022 with the installation of 150 Orbis SmartCap telemetry leak detection devices on fire hydrants and over 30 leaks have already been found.

Kansas City's water network includes 2,300 miles of water pipes and distributes up to 240 million gallons of water daily, serving over 450,000 people. Much of the plumbing is aging infrastructure installed in busy commercial and residential areas.

The water losses that have occurred range from small leaks in the utility lines that carry water to properties, to major breaks in distribution lines throughout the city, where water can become visible as it breaches streets and sidewalks, causing significant disruption in busy areas leads.

The municipality proactively reduces water loss in the distribution system, not only from visible leaks, but also through early detection of leaks hidden deep underground. Existing technologies have not always been able to meet the demands of Missouri's changing weather conditions or the need for technicians to easily relocate and deploy leak detection equipment at short notice.

Engineers and technicians at Kansas City Water were looking for a more effective leak detection system that was resilient, adaptable, and leveraged existing city infrastructure to build resilience. They also wanted to move from reactive decision-making to data-driven proactive operations by integrating smart water technologies into drinking water infrastructure systems.

Successful collaboration

After demonstrating the capabilities of Orbis Smart Caps, a second order was placed in September 2023 and Kansas City Water now has 150 devices deployed across the city as part of a proactive campaign to reduce leaks in the water network. So far they have been placed in the popular plaza area in downtown Kansas City and in a residential area, serving as initial deployment locations.

In addition to the SmartCaps installed, Kansas City Water technicians were trained on Orbis' cloud-based Streamline portal, where they can regularly check installed devices and identify alerts of potential leaks.

James Binkley, meter field services manager for Kansas City Water, said:

“Since installing the SmartCaps, we have found more than 30 leaks. The SmartCaps’ easy deployment and plug-and-play stability have been a huge benefit to us, allowing us to strategically plan when and where to place them.”

SmartCap's high accuracy allows Kansas City water repair crews to quickly locate underground leaks. Once an area has been fully surveyed and all existing leaks, as well as all minor and emerging leaks, have been found, it is possible to easily relocate the caps if necessary.

Telemetry data

The Orbis SmartCap is a smart hydrant and pipe monitoring device that enables remote leak detection by providing intelligent network data from a multi-sensor. Packaged in a fire hydrant, the device can transform any fire hydrant, whether wet, dry or older, into a smart system by simply replacing the pump nozzle cap.

Once installed, the SmartCap sends a secure wireless signal to the cloud, with algorithms allowing the SmartCap sensors to interact and connect with each other. SmartCaps use GPS to show precise leak locations with time stamps to capture acoustic data.

Data uploads from the connected SmartCaps enable noise analysis to pinpoint leaks. The Streamline portal and dashboard provide actionable alerts and identify locations for corrective actions to enable near real-time, automatically generated network efficiency reports.

Alerts on parameters such as leakage, tampering, flow and pipe conditions can be viewed on the portal online or via an application programming interface (API) in a utility's internal database. The portal indicates the distance to the hydrant in feet, making it easier to locate the locations precisely.

This actionable information enables utilities and municipalities to manage water network operations efficiently and effectively.

Cost savings

According to the American Society of Civil Engineering, drinking water systems in the U.S. currently lose at least 6 billion gallons of water every day and water main failures occur every two minutes. According to the American Society of Civil Engineering, the country lost an estimated $7.6 billion in treated water in 2021 due to leaks.

In addition, at Kansas City Water, some of the drinking water released from the water pipes ends up in the sewer system through infiltration. This increases the volume treated in the wastewater treatment plant, increasing costs and placing greater strain on the plant.

Implementing Orbis SmartCaps resulted in significant water and cost savings by alerting Kansas City Water to leaks that would otherwise last for weeks or even months.

Thanks to SmartCap's remote monitoring capability, no on-site workers are required to detect the leaks. However, the greatest savings come from preventing future water losses and reducing the risk of major infrastructure damage and the costly legal claims that can result from a water main break.

Nicholas Wolf, utility leak investigation manager for Kansas City Water, said:

“The team trained in the Streamline portal can search for the alerts displayed on the network map and even refine and listen to individual SmartCaps to determine the risk and decide whether it needs to be acted upon.

“The Streamline portal can tell the difference between high water usage and line breaks in a way that was not possible before. All of this information and data can be interpreted, analyzed and passed on to maintenance teams.”

Orbis supports Kansas City Water with technical support for questions, with follow-up meetings and on-site emergency contacts available at all times. Training is also provided on the Streamline portal to ensure the use of the software is maximized and expanded as the software develops.

According to Kansas City Water, the municipality expects to expand the use of SmartCaps as the results of implementing the second ordinance become apparent.