The Executive Director of the Mohawk Valley Water Authority is explaining why a recent state audit found that 43% of the water generated by the Authority is unaccounted for.

''It's an older system and we get water main breaks almost everyday,'' Becher said on WIBX First News with Keeler in the Morning. ''What we're seeing here is really not unusual compared to the rest of upstate and a lot of cities in the Northeast...a third of our pipes are more than 100 years old.''

A big chunk of the 'unaccounted for' water is being lost to leaks and breaks, he said. With a cost of roughly $900,000 per-mile to replace the aging system, Becher said unless a couple-hundred-million dollars falls from the sky, the MVWA is doing the best it can to repair and replace the infrastructure.

''...We pretty much know where [the wasted water] is going and why it's happening,'' Becher said.

The time frame examined by the recent state audit covered two winters, he said, adding that last year's bitterly cold temperatures were resulting in upwards of five to six water main breaks per day in the dead of the winter season.

''It did look at our worst case scenario. You could pick a different period of months and end up with somewhat of a different picture. But, the fact is, there's been high leakage in the system for decades and decades,'' Becher said.

''It just comes down to public policy. How much can the community afford for outright replacement and major, major capital investments. So far, we've put $55 million worth of improvements into the system since we took it over in 1997.''

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