Dogs From Around the World – That Help with Water Conservation

How can dogs help with conserving water ??

Our web portal has been online in one form or another since 1989, but it was not until 2023 I finally learned that dogs can help find water leaks in water distribution systems and the leak does NOT have to come to the surface.    In the mid 1980’s while doing my undergraduate work the class was able to review water production and use records for a local water authority providing drinking water to the community.  At that time, we estimated the water loss from the distribution system was approaching 70 % and this is after the area was flooded and much of the distribution system was replaced  including the old wooden water line  and an article in Water World in 2016 confirms that non-revenue water loss for some cities can be as much as 70% and recent estimates in 2024 suggest it may be as much as 60% in the USA.  

Traditionally, these types of assessments were based on a combination of a review of water metering records, reported pressure problems in distribution systems,  user complaints,  field identification of wet spots,  water chemical analysis to identify if the water is geochemically similar to drinking water, water damage associated with long-term leaks and manual monitoring using leak detection systems that use “sound” or acoustic leak detection.  In fact, I worked on a court case where tap water was flooding a persons basement and the court case failed, because we could not trace back the actual source of the chlorinated water. In fact, 20 yrs later this same building has a sump pump that discharges this water to the street. 

The podcast that got my attention was “ Doggone it: Meet Vessel, Central Arkansas Water’s leak detecting dog” dated 2022, but I did not listen to this podcast until 2023.  The podcast claimed that Vessel was the nation’s first leak detecting canine (I love the internet !)  

“Vessel is the first leak detection dog in North America….Vessel actually started her story as a puppy dumped on the side of the road and has grown into such a valuable tool for leak detection, a beloved employee, and a community mascot.”

My first question was how?   To be honest, I assumed it was hearing. 

The American Kennel Club   (AKC)  says “The truth of the matter is that, for some sounds, a dog’s hearing is really hundreds of times better than ours, whereas for other sounds, dogs and humans have sound sensitivities that are very much the same. Where dogs really shine is with higher-pitched sounds. The average adult human cannot hear sounds above 20,000 Hertz (Hz), although young children can hear higher. Sounds are between 3,000 and 12,000 Hz in frequency, dogs’ ears are far more sensitive than ours.  Humans have a hearing range from 20  to 23,000 Hz, but dogs have a hearing range from 40 to 60,000 Hz (Source ) 

Fact – “In cast iron, copper and steel pipes, you are most likely to hear leak sounds in the range of 500 Hz to 1,500 Hz, although under varying conditions, the frequencies may be higher or lower. In PVC pipe, leak sounds typically resonate in the range of 70 Hz to 850 Hz. (Source)  It is also important to note that water leaks do not always make noise.  This can occur when water pools.  The saturated conditions around the pipe tends to muffle or inhibit the sound from being generated .  It turns out it is not their ability to hear that is effect, it is the dogs ability to SMELL. 

Vessel ”can sniff out water leaks from the utilities’ distribution system faster than human crews and with a 97% accuracy rate.”

“Our dogs locate gas leaks, oil leaks, leaks on oil-cooled high tension cables, and illegal taps fast, accurately and efficiently. They pinpoint the exact leak locations, even in rural environments and hard-to-reach areas where it can be challenging to use measurement equipment. (Sniffers)”

The dogs do not smell the water, they smell the chlorine.  Charlie “He sniffs for chlorine….As leaking water sinks into the soil, the added chlorine becomes a gas that slowly rises through small air pockets toward the surface. That is what the remarkable scent-analyzing instrument known as Charlie’s nose has been trained to seek and identify. A dog’s nose can be 10,000 to 100,000 times as sensitive as a human’s. They have up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses compared with our 5 million to 6 million, according to research reports. In recent years, service dogs have been trained to sniff out unhealthy blood glucose levels in people with diabetes, cancer from a patient’s breath or, for those with epilepsy, indications of an upcoming seizure before it happens.”   

Websites

https://bamaleakdetection.com/

https://bluebonnet.coop/texas-first-leak-sniffing-dog

https://www.the-sniffers.com/pipeline-integrity/field-surveys-and-services/leak-detection-with-sniffing-dogs/

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