Non-Revenue Water (NRW) Program in Burnaby, BC

Everything produced that doesn't end up billed: real losses (leakage from mains, services, appurtenances, reservoir overflow), apparent losses (meters under-registering, billing data gaps, unauthorised use), and unbilled authorised use (flushing, firefighting). The split matters enormously — real losses are fixed with detection and repair; apparent losses are fixed with meter and billing work; the fixes share no budget. The water balance exists to make that split before money gets spent on the wrong half.

Industry reporting consistently puts typical systems in that band, with well-managed networks below it and older, hillier, or long-neglected systems above. BC's mix — postwar AC pipe, mountain pressure zones that stress mains, and small systems with thin staffing — spans the whole range. Your own production and billing records, run through a proper balance, answer the question for your system in weeks; guessing is free and worth it.

Three stacked values: the marginal production cost of every cubic metre no longer leaked (treatment, pumping energy, chemicals); deferred capital where supply or treatment capacity is tight — recovered leakage is new capacity at a fraction of expansion cost; and resilience under drought restrictions, where every leaked litre is a litre your residents were told not to use. Programs are designed so located-leak recovery outruns program cost — that's the point of payback-ordered sequencing.

Burnaby ground is predominantly glacial till slopes with peat pockets around Burnaby Lake and Big Bend. Till slopes give clean 2–3 m penetration; peat and high water table near Burnaby Lake and Big Bend cut effective depth — survey design accounts for it. For leak work that cuts two ways: it shapes whether escaping water surfaces or vanishes, and it influences how leak noise carries to our sensors — both factored into how we run non-revenue water (nrw) program here, and into when we recommend pairing the aerial thermal screen with the ground crews.

Metrotown and Brentwood tower clusters on post-tensioned slabs, 1960s–70s walk-ups mid-slope, and heavy industrial along the Fraser. The water mains underneath broadly track that growth story — each construction era left its pipe materials behind, from early metallic stock through the postwar asbestos-cement years to modern PVC — and each material gets matched methods in our survey design.

Where the data quality requires it, yes — minimum-demand hours give the cleanest acoustic and flow readings, and noise loggers do their listening at 2–4 a.m. by design. Scheduling is coordinated with your operations staff, Mon–Sat, and active breaks get priority response. 604-239-9934.

Province-wide pricing — no regional premium for Burnaby or anywhere in the Metro Vancouver. Surveys and programs are quoted by network size and scope; single investigations start in the high hundreds. The free phone consult produces a firm number in about five minutes.