High water use at 3 schools blamed on suspected leaks
A breakdown of total utility cost as a percentage of the Public School System’s total utility costs—for its schools and locations—shows Marianas High School, Hopwood Junior High School, and Tanapag Elementary School leading the pack.
According to PSS’ data, MHS sits at 27 percent of total cost, Hopwood at 13 percent, and Tanapag at 6 percent.
PSS finance and budget director Derek Sasamoto described these school’s numbers as “outliers” and are probably due to water leaks.
He noted that Tanapag’s percentage is high in relation to its size.
“[Tanapag] is one of our smallest schools,” he said.
He suspect that the school’s percentages are due to problems with water leaks, as he found a discrepancy between actual power usage and water used.
“When you look at water consumption, when you look at percentage of total charges compared to water as a percentage of total, it doesn’t match,” he said.
He said that PSS has communicated with the three schools to look into their respective situations.
Sasamoto noted that most schools average 3 to 5 percent of total PSS costs.
“Outlier schools have been identified. They have been briefed as to what this problem may be, [which is] more than likely water leaks,” he said.
Sasamoto said the schools have been notified of the problem and are making it a “high priority.”
PSS has been trying to curb its utility usage to remain in line with its budget.
The comparative data, which he presented to the Board of Education on Tuesday, will be provided to schools every month.
“They’ll be comparing… each other’s usage performance,” he said, adding that it can promote “self-regulation” as schools compare usage between each other.
“[It] will also allow us to monitor usage, water usage, leaks, and advise them month to month as to what needs to be done, so we’re going to really control this cost as much as we can,” he said.
Derek, I suggest that aside from your statistical analyses to determine usage anomalies you called, “outliers”, just have somebody who knows the plumbing go out and physically trace these lines to determine where the leaks are…To simply look at this problem by taking the percentage of billed versus total charged and comparing it to percent usage is like trying to solve three unknowns with two equations! Since you are the man with the purse strings, yank each school personnel ON A NON SESSION (preferably on a Saturday) and have a walk through on the utilities….You’ll be surprise to find so many waste such as A/C units on full blast, unnecessary lights on, water leaks in toilet rooms, and the worse – none of the personnel knows exactly where the lines go…yeah, you have CADD drawings but nobody has gone out to physically verify the actual location of the lines…I know this to be true because I’ve encountered this happened not once or twice….Your “As-Built” drawings are nice on a computer screen but worthless out in the field…just like your inference on your bill data…Stop blaming CUC for once and do your part first!…And by the way, if you need to determine pressure readings, please make use of CUC and ask for their help – they have knowledgeable field personnel and most of the simple equipment you’ll need!