Non-revenue water totals decreased slightly in 2025
July 9, 2026 at 10:21 AM
Improvements in the town’s unbilled water totals may have appeared to slow to a trickle in 2025, but they’re improvements nonetheless, and represent success given growth in the municipality, a staff report and town councillor say.
Fort Erie’s ongoing battle to reduce the amount of water it imports but doesn’t bill took another step forward in 2025, according to the annual American Water Works Association water loss audit. The audit determines how much water the town brought in from the region’s supply, and compares how much was billed versus unbilled.
Unbilled, or non-revenue water, can be the result of several reasons. Some are anticipated and accepted, such as system flushing, firefighting activities, and watermain commissioning. However, leakages, burst pipes, illegal connections, unauthorized consumption and metering inaccuracies can all leave the municipality on the hook for costs to the region.
Fort Erie isn’t alone, with many other municipalities facing similar issues.
Results from 2025 show a slight decrease in non-revenue water from the previous year, itself a decrease from a peak in 2023.
“It’s going in the right direction with regards to unauthorized water usage,” said Councillor Ann-Marie Noyes.
In 2023, the audit found 1,868 megalitres of non-revenue water. A megalitre is one million litres. That number dropped to 1,659 megalitres in 2024 and 1,651 last year.
On the flip side, authorized consumption has increased over that span, from 2,854 megalitres in 2023 to 3,074 megalitres last year.
Water losses can be broken down to apparent and real. Apparent losses refers to unauthorized consumption, customer metering inaccuracies and systematic data handling errors.
The staff report attributed an accelerated metering program for improvements in this area. Metering inaccuracies are about a third what they were in 2019, going from roughly 190 megalitres to 64 megalitres.
Systematic data handling errors have also decreased from a peak of 56.3 megalitres in 2021 to 7.424 last year.
Real losses, meanwhile, refers primarily to leakages in the system. Here, staff reported significant fluctuations, with a six-year high of 1,710 megalitres in 2023 and a low of 942 megalitres in 2020. Last year’s total of nearly 1,468 megalitres was a slight decrease from the previous year.
“A reduction despite increased occurrence of watermain breaks and enhanced system maintenance prove newly implemented processes and diligence of the staff in the water, wastewater and stormwater department have been effective,” the report said.
From a financial standpoint, the cost of non-revenue water to the town was just shy of $1.14 million in 2025, a slight decrease from 2024 and down from $1.32 million in 2023.
Overall water imports saw an increase in the early part of this decade, as Fort Erie experienced significant growth. There were a total of 4,033 megalitres imported in 2020. That shot up to 4,754 by 2022, but has since leveled off and actually decreased somewhat in the three most recent years.
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About The Author
Luke Edwards
Luke Edwards is a longtime Niagara community journalist who has covered a variety of beats, including business, agriculture, the wine industry and politics. When not writing, there's a good chance he can be found at a baseball diamond or curling rink.
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