Water

Westmeath County Council produces an average of 33,000 m3 (7.5 million gallons) per day of drinking water from four water supply sources (Lough Owel, Lough Lene, the River Shannon and a borehole at Ballinderry in Moate) to serve a population of 80 200 in all of the major towns and villages in the County as well as a wide rural area, through an extensive network of public water mains and public group water schemes. All drinking water must comply with the European Communities (Drinking Water) Regulations, 2014 which set standards for 48 individual microbiological, chemical and indicator parameters. Westmeath County Council carry out regular monitoring of public water supplies (on behalf of Uisce Éireann) and also public group schemes, and these results are reported to the Environmental Protection Agency each year

Wastewater

Westmeath County Council provide for the treatment of urban waste water - effluent from houses and businesses - before it is discharge to rivers, estuaries or the sea is important to prevent pollution. The Council’s waste water network collects effluent from 14,800 premises, for treatment at the Council’s 23 waste water treatment plants.

The council recognises that too much of the water it pumps, treats and distributes each year is lost by leakage from distribution mains, some of which are old and need on-going repair and renewal.

The continuing maintenance and renewal of these mains is being accelerated and our Water Conservation Unit works to reduce the current unacceptably high level of water loss on the 1200 km of distribution mains throughout the county.

Westmeath Mains System

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Westmeath Water Supply

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 Westmeath UFW Levels in 2016

• Historically UFW (unaccounted for water) - Passive leakage control ran at 65%
• Westmeath currently @ 37.1% UFW

Monitoring the System - Two Tier Approach

• Macro Level – SCADA – Live Telemetry System of operational data available to all staff
• Micro Level – Specialist Water Conservation Software - LMARS + Primeworks – Monitors 120 Flows & 80 DMA’s daily

Scada Monitoring System

Leak Detection Methodology

• Different levels of Leak Detection activity
• 1. Passive - Reacting only to visible leaks reported to Council (prior to inception of Water Conservation Project 2004)
• 2. Active - Monitoring network and seeking existing and newly occurring leaks (current policy)

Active Leak Detection Methodology

Use Water Conservation Software to:

• Identigy problem - We have a leak
• Localise problem  - Focus in on leak
• Locate problem - Pinpoint leak and repair
• Reassess problem - What's the improvement