Water leaks continue to plague Lamar
By Samantha Lyles, Staff Writer, slyles@newsandpress.net
Lamar Town Council convened their regular monthly meeting February 13, where the agenda included a discussion of the town’s ongoing problem with water system losses.
Council member Mike Lloyd, who supervises the town’s water and sewer issues as part of his council duties, presented a detailed report of the last ten billing periods and noted that each month Lamar consistently shows a major deficit between gallons billed to customers and gallons purchased from the Darlington County Water and Sewer Authority.
“The average daily loss is not pretty. This past month we purchased almost 3.8 million gallons and we only billed for about 2.1 (million gallons),” said Lloyd. “We have 1.7 million gallons unaccounted for, and that’s a 45 percent loss. That’s an average of 55,000 gallons a day that we’re losing.”
This was the second highest daily loss recorded, the worst deficit since August – September of 2016 when Lamar sustained an average daily water loss of 66,443 gallons per day.
Lloyd said that while he and town water and sewer employees have searched out and repaired numerous leaks, the losses remain significant. He explained that old water meters with impaired function and inaccurate metering are likely responsible for the majority of these losses, and the town will likely be forced to purchase new meters to address this problem.
“We’ve got to get a handle on it. If we can find the meters that aren’t registering and get the revenue from them, that would be a help,” said Lloyd. “Still, 1.7 million gallons is a lot of water to try and find. With that much loss, it ought to be flowing like a river down Main Street.”
Lamar is currently pursuing a loan/grant package to finance $2.6 million in repairs and updates for its municipal water system. The project would address several key system needs, including building a new water treatment plant at a cost of $1.2 million, sinking a new 250 GPM (gallons per minute) well for $362,700, and replacing dated and unreliable water meters with new RF (radio frequency) models.
Lloyd noted that SC DHEC notified the town that they must install a downspout on one of their two water towers, and that cost of $15,000 will be added to a $485,000 grant request with SC Rural Infrastructure Authority.
The Town of Lamar has been purchasing all of its municipal water from the Darlington County Water and Sewer Authority since February of 2016, when South Carolina DHEC shut down the second of Lamar’s two water wells due to trace radium detection. Sinking a new well and building a new treatment plant would allow the town to resume selling water to its residential and commercial customers, and could save Lamar a considerable amount of money each month.