Idle Capacity from Leaks and Pressure Imbalances in Irrigation Delivery

$10,000-$50,000 monthly across cooperative members (20-50% NRW in shared networks) • $100,000-$300,000 annually from water waste, emergency repairs, customer credits, lost revenue from unmet service hours • $100,000-$400,000 annually from deferred maintenance, cascading asset failures, emergency repairs, lost capacity

Analyst manually reviews meter data, compares against baseline using spreadsheet formulas, alerts operations team via email or meeting; operations manually investigates • Coordinator maintains hand-written pressure logs on paper; calls field volunteers to manually inspect marked pipe sections; records leak locations on printed system map • Coordinator manually compiles field repair records from paper tickets and email, estimates asset degradation using spreadsheet, creates hand-drawn or static GIS map showing problem areas, presents findings in annual report with vague recommendations