Millions of gallons of water lost

water main near utep … backing up an already congested mesa … abc-seven is looking into how much water we lose when breaks like that happen. abc-7’s darren hunt is live in west el paso with the details … darren. rick… you see here and when the break happened a few days ago, we know thousands of gallons of water was lost. but according to a review of the state’s water losses, this isn’t the only place in texas where aging infrastructure is springing leaks. “in providing the public data w want to bring forth to the public this important information.” dr. huber colas is president of fluksaqua … a group of water operators looking at the problem of water losses. “the public is the one that’s paying for this water and they should be aware of what their money is giving them.” according to fluksaqua more than 15-hundred million gallons of water is lost each year in el paso … that’s enough to fill more 23-hundred olympic-sized swimming pools. the cost? more than 4- point-3 million dollars or 20 dollars per customer in water losses every year. el paso water told us their numbers for water losses are about half of those reported by fluksaqua, costing about 10 dollars a year per customer.. “generally, darren, we averag about a main break every other day.” ala shubert is v-p of operations for el paso water. “the real problem is really a nationwide infrastructure problem.” “shubert said the age of th pipes here at ingersol and alabama that broke this past week and have broken eight times since 1984 is 62 years old … he says we have some pipes in el paso as old as 90 or a hundred years old, but the average age of water pipes here in el paso is 44 years old.” “we get more water line per yea than we replace, that’s why we wind up not catching up on it, because the system continues to grow and it becomes an issue of rates.” shubert said el paso water devotes nearly five million dollars a year to replacing old pipes. the company has also been using electronic leak detection sensors for the past dozen years. “buried infrastructure is out o sight out of mind until something goes wrong.” by comparison, according to fluksaqua, water losses in cities like houston and dallas are costing customers nearly 50 dollars a year. shubert said the average age of pipes in el paso is 44 years old and even with all the main breaks … he believes e-p-w’s water losses are among the lowest in the state. rick/estela. darren, live in west el paso tonight, thank you. a new holiday inn express could be