The cost of I&I
Stop paying to inspect everything.
Find the 20% that matters first.
Traditional programs inspect a whole basin to find the fraction of it that leaks. Sensor-first detection finds that fraction before the cameras roll. Here is the per-foot math, benchmarked against published engineering costs.
The true cost of I&I
You're already paying for I&I.
The only question is which line item.
Before anyone commissions a study, inflow & infiltration is quietly billing the community four ways: at the treatment plant, on the capital plan, in compliance exposure, and on every ratepayer's bill.
Treating clean water
$2–$5
Per 1,000 gallons of rainwater and groundwater pumped and treated like sewage.
A 5 MGD system at 20% I&I
$730K+/yr
Roughly 365 million extra gallons a year — $730K to $1.8M annually at the EPA benchmark, spent treating water that shouldn't be there.
Federal penalties · 2025
$68,445
Maximum Clean Water Act civil penalty per day, per violation.
The capital trap
20–30 yrs
How long a community finances a plant expansion sized by leaks instead of growth.
Typical municipal bond term
Per-foot reality
$3.50–$6 per foot vs. $1.32 per foot.
Published benchmarks put clean-and-CCTV investigation near $3.50 per foot in 2016 dollars, more today. The real cost is that it prices every foot as if every foot were suspect. Smart Sewers monitors the whole basin for $1.32 per foot, then sends cameras only where the data points.
Method
Per Linear Foot
17,000 LF Basin
Time to Result
Traditional SSES
Full basin · CCTV everywhere
$3.50 – $6PER FOOT
$60K – $100K17,000 LF + METERING
6–12 moMULTIPLE STORMS
Smart Sewers — PinPoint Detection
water-level sensors only
$1.32PER FOOT
$22,44017,000 LF BASIN
1 storm~7 DAYS
Smart Sewers — Targeted Program
Monitor 100% · inspect only the flagged ~30%
$2.40 – $3.10BLENDED PER FOOT
$40K – $53K17,000 LF BASIN
4–8 wkTARGETED
Savings vs. Traditional
62% on detection
33–47% per basin
First answers in days
Sample basin · 17,000 LF
$80K of inspect-everything. Or $45K of targeted clarity.
Traditional, inspect it all (mid-range)$80,000
Smart Sewers targeted program$45,000
Avoided spend, before capital effects$35,000
Benchmarks: cleaning $0.75–$1.00/ft, CCTV $2.00/ft, reporting $0.75/ft (≈$3.50/ft, published 2016 engineering figures; upper bound reflects current pricing), flow meters ≈$5,000 per monitored site — M. Gingerich, Gereaux & Associates, SSES cost guide. Targeted-program figure blends $1.32/ft monitoring across the full basin with benchmark-rate inspection on the flagged ~30%. Smart Sewers rates are program pricing in line with prevailing market rates for sewer basin detection programs. The larger avoided costs — treatment O&M and leak-sized capital projects — are covered in the true-cost figures above.
What you stop paying for
The savings aren't from cutting corners.
They're from cutting noise.
Smart Sewers isn't a cheaper version of traditional SSES. It's a different approach — one that pays for the work that finds answers and skips the work that doesn't.
01
Inspecting pipes that aren't the problem
Traditional SSES CCTV's 100% of the system to find the 20% that matters. Smart Sewers uses sensor data to point CCTV crews where defects actually drive overflows.
↓ 60–80%CCTV SCOPE
02
Long-running flow meter studies
Traditional meters lease at $1,500–$2,000 per meter, per month, plus service calls. Smart Sewers deploys dense sensor networks at a fraction of the cost, and gets you answers in one rain event, not eight.
↓ 70–90%MONITORING COST
03
Plant expansion driven by I&I, not growth
The single largest hidden cost. A $50M+ plant expansion built on bad capacity assumptions is debt the community pays for 30 years. Smart Sewers separates real growth from I&I before the bond is sized.
↓ $50M+CAPITAL AVOIDED
04
Repeating the same study every 5–10 years
Traditional SSES is a snapshot. The system changes; the snapshot ages. Smart Sewers is continuous — once it's running, there is no repeat study to commission. You just keep watching.
↓ recurringSTUDY CYCLE
05
EPA fines and consent decree exposure
Federal civil penalties run up to $68,445 per day, per violation (2025). Smart Sewers gives you the defensible documentation regulators look for, and the early warning to prevent the next event.
↓ exposureREGULATORY RISK
Run the math on your own basin