Grand Marais Water and Waste Water superintendent Tom Nelson said approximately 60,000 gallons per day are leaking from unknown places in the town’s massive plumbing works. “That’s about a 30 percent loss,” he told the Public Utilities Commission at its Wednesday, December 17 meeting.
PUC board member Adam Harju asked if it was hard to find a leak, and Nelson said if a big enough pipe broke, it was easy for his crews to track down and fix, but if it was a small leak, it can go undetected for a long time, if it was ever found.
But, Nelson added, “In my 24 years here I’ve never had it under a 30 percent loss. It has been as high as 60 percent, but when we repaired all of the pipes in the downtown section several years ago it went back to about 30 percent unaccounted for leaks we find and then fix. Some leaks we may never find,” he added.
Still, Nelson said his crew was always on the lookout for a possible break in a water line.
Water usage peaks in the summer and sales fall in the winter months, he said.
Right now the city is selling about 185,000 gallons a day, added Nelson.
Mike Taylor, electrical supervisor, said he and City Administrator Mike Roth decided to have Light Power Systems (LPS) perform the city’s power plant inspections after not hearing back from Cummins, the city’s usual power plant inspector. Taylor said he had asked Cummins to send him a quote several months ago but he never received a response.
LPS will charge $9,300 to provide a full inspection of the city’s 5-megawatt power generation plant.
Taylor said Great River Energy is now using LPS for its inspections, and LPS now employs Tim Panka, formerly with Cummins. “Tim has been with us since the plant was built. We can call on Tim day or night if we have a problem and have in the past,” Taylor said.
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