Rural North Texas community cuts non-revenue water by 42% with pipeline leak detection technology

In the rural city of Iowa Park, Texas, the Cypress Water Transmission Line serves as a community backbone – delivering drinking water to 6,000 residents and local businesses. Spanning 13 miles from the Cypress Water Treatment Plant in Wichita Falls, this essential pipeline provides water access while strengthening the city’s resilience to the region’s persistent drought conditions. When metering data revealed unexplained water loss, city leaders took action to protect their water supply and assess the health of the decades-old pipeline.

Aging infrastructure meets rugged terrain

Installed in the 1970s, the Cypress Water Transmission Line traverses rugged terrain – cutting through hills, dense mesquite forests, and other hard-to-reach areas. Like many aging systems, it had begun to show signs of leakage.

“A distribution meter indicated we had a lot more water coming through one line than what we were distributing into our system, so we suspected we had some leaks,” said Michael McCarty II, Public Works Director at the City of Iowa Park.

The city needed more than guesswork to guide costly repairs. With limited access points and minimal location data, traditional inspections would have required days of work in sweltering Texas heat. Instead, the city partnered with Halff Associates, an infrastructure consulting firm. Their recommendation was to use SmartBall, an inline leak detection tool from Xylem.

Xylem Smartball makes pipeline inspections faster and easier

In July 2024, Iowa Park partnered with Xylem to perform a SmartBall inspection of the pipeline. The free-swimming tool travels with the flow of water, listening for acoustic anomalies that indicate leaks and delivering actionable insights without disrupting service.

SmartBall entered the pipeline through a bypass at the Cypress Water Treatment Plant and was extracted at a gate valve in Iowa Park, completing the 10-mile journey in just over 8 hours. Throughout the inspection, Xylem coordinated with city crews, placing sensors at key points to track the tool’s progress and record data.

“We're a small crew, so I didn't really have a lot of staff to send out to work on it,” said McCarty. “The whole inspection process, including insertion and removal, was very easy.”

Precise data enables targeted repairs and savings

SmartBall’s advanced acoustic sensor identified three leaks, detecting sounds that external detection methods might miss – especially in large concrete pipelines like the bar-wrapped Cypress Water Transmission Line. Because a bar-wrapped pipe tends to leak before it breaks, early detection can be the difference between a manageable repair and catastrophic failure.

The team confirmed that two of the leaks were significant within 24 hours of analyzing the preliminary data. Equipped with precise location data and dig sheets guiding the way to the leak locations, city crews were able to act quickly to repair the damaged pipe.

In one case, workers spent six hours clearing mesquite trees and navigating dangerous terrain – including wild hogs – to access the pipe. Another leak was located in the middle of a former shrimp pond. Without the SmartBall inspection, finding these leaks would have been nearly impossible.

The damaged sections were replaced with PVC pipe and dresser couplings. Two leaks had likely occurred at joints where welds had failed; a third was caused by a hole the size of two softballs in the pipe barrel.

Partnership supports resilience and long-term planning

The collaboration between Iowa Park and Xylem not only saved substantial amounts of water – it delivered lasting value to the community. The SmartBall inspection provided the city with a better understanding of the pipeline’s location and condition, strengthening its ability to manage future maintenance and secure state funding for replacement, estimated at more than $20 million.

Ultimately, the strongest measure of the pipeline inspection’s success lies in the numbers.

Thanks to data provided by Xylem SmartBall and the subsequent repairs made by the city and its contractor, Iowa Park is saving between 100,000 and 500,000 gallons of water per day.

Over the past year, its non-revenue water has dropped from 14 to 8 percent – well below targets set by the Texas Water Development Board, and a testament to the power of a forward-thinking public works team, proven technology and trusted partnership.

“Managing droughts has become a top priority for cities across the U.S. – we try and stay one step ahead of them,” said McCarty. “Preventing water leakage is key to ensuring we can supply our community and keep water treatment costs in check. I would recommend the Xylem SmartBall to anybody looking to inspect their pipeline. The inspection we did with Xylem is going to save us a lot of water and a lot of money.”

Learn more about utilities who are staying one step ahead of water loss. Discover Xylem’s leak detection solutions.