A Word From Our Water Workers
A Milestone for Arlington Residents
Arlington Water Utilities celebrated a milestone in July 2025 when it completed converting all of its more than 112,000 meters to the AMI( or automated meter infrastructure) system, which allows water utilities customers to view their hourly water use data online because readings are sent via radio or cellular signals from the meters to the utility.
In August 2025, the new Arlington Water app became available for download on the Apple App Store and Google Play, offering convenient access to the City of Arlington’ s Know Your H2O customer portal. Residents who download the app can track their water use, view and pay their bill, and set up high use alerts- all from their phones or other mobile devices. Nearly 5,000 customers downloaded the app in the first two months it was available.
Leak Detection On Land and In the Sky
When most people think of water conservation, they’ re probably picturing reminders to shut the water off while you brush your teeth or watering in the cool morning hours. For water professionals in Arlington, water conservation also means limiting the loss of water that the utility has spent money to treat. Leaks in the City of Arlington’ s distribution system can waste thousands of gallons of water if not discovered. That’ s why Arlington Water Utilities added more tools to prevent this waste in 2025.
In 2025, the City of Arlington’ s water department conducted pilot programs with two satellite leak detection companies- ASTERRA and Paradigm Satellite Leak Detection. Both companies scan the entire City with Earth-orbiting satellites to detect underground moisture levels and temperature variations in a targeted flight path. That data is used to predict
“ points of interest” or areas that Arlington Water Utilities can investigate for potential leaks on the City’ s system. The project has yielded out-of-this-world results, with savings of almost $ 500,000 in avoided lost water costs already reported.
Arlington Water Utilities also added an exciting new team member – Splash the leak detection K9. Splash is a oneyear-old Siberian Husky / Labrador mix who Arlington Water adopted from Arlington Animal Services. After his adoption, he was specially trained to detect underground leaks in the City pipes that bring tap water to residents. He uses his strong sense of smell to detect small amounts of chlorine in treated drinking water. He is one of just a few other leak detecting dogs in the U. S. When he’ s not sniffing out leaks on water service lines, Splash lives with his handler, Operations Sector Manager Richard Everhart.
A Word From Our Water Workers
“ I really enjoyed being a part of Water Utilities University. Being able to show what we do on a day-to-day basis. A lot of the public is not aware of what it takes to maintain and assess the water and sewer infrastructure.”
— Robbie Bailey, Asset Information Supervisor 5