>>This story makes one wonder how many millions (or billions) of gallons are leaking through decaying water main infrastructure across the USA.
>>This is also another indication of government mismanagement of a service which could be provided by a private company. A private company would be reconciling the water its customers are paying for with the water it is sending out through the system. A 3 million gallon per day discrepancy would be investigated, found, and plugged quickly by a private company.
The exact opposite is true. Over the last century, my city went from a public/private water utility (where some areas were public and some were private) to a fully public system because the private companies had let their grids and plants degrade to the point of threatening public safety.
Water is cheap...almost free. The cost incurred is in delivering it properly-disinfected to your tap. So, the private companies didn’t care about leaks because the costs of fixing them would take years to capitalize.
A public company is only answerable to the people (not shareholders), so wasting water became a serious concern and the money was spent to fix the leaks.
at $2.78 per 1000 gallons, info I sourced online, the city was overspending by about $8,400 per day, or 3MM per year for their water.
Back charge the private company for leaks and the problem of leak repairs would be solved.