Auditors: 25 Million Gallons of Water Missing
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25 million gallons of water was missing from the small West Tennessee town of Sharon, after auditors found almost half of their water unaccounted for. Faye Kendall said she attended almost every city/county meeting and noticed the amount of water loss reported every month continued to increase. “Well, you just wonder what could be happening to it,” said Kendall. City officials said they received a letter from the state that said an audit showed a water loss of 47 percent. Of the 54 million gallons of water pumped in 2011, only 25 million were accounted for. “A checklist was provided and the checklist is being reviewed as we speak,” said city recorder, Donna Stricklin. “The city is very concerned and will correct the matter, we will have this under control in a matter of months. We immediately brought people in to assist us.” Stricklin said the city made numerous changes to find out the cause of such a huge amount of water loss could have been for the town of less than 1,000 residents. “We feel like most of our meters are old, that’s why we started this change-out program. Our goal was to change out 50 per year, but already we’ve done about 100, and we have about 420 more to go,” said Stricklin. Along with replacing the old meters, officials said a leak detection service was underway, and a new computer software would be installed. Stricklin added the water loss had no effect on residents’ current or future water bills. “I wish we could find it because it’s a mystery and it’s a lot of water.” The town of Sharon has until July to figure out the water loss problem and solution, before going before the state Water Financing Board.
