Water Leak Detection at a Massachusetts University

During the mid-winter of 2009, RSI's Geophysicist Melanie Denham and Geophysical Technician Katie Dowty were asked to pinpoint the location of a water leak occurring underneath a state university. The leaks massive size was causing the school to lose approximately 2000 gal/day from the cold water line. Excavators had previously tried to locate the leak by digging test pits, but were unable to locate the source of the leak. With the source of the leak still being unknown, our geophysicist came to step in.

With the use of GSSI's SIR 3000 and the 400 MHz antenna, Melanie and Katie were able to pinpoint the location and extent of the leak. Below is a GPR-Slice image of the survey area.

GPR image of a leak

In the photo above, we observed the water leak propagating from the building, and to the east, is the water leak.