Case Study: Halifax Water accelerates lead service line replacement with BlueConduit

Halifax Water reduces hydrovac inspections and advances lead line replacement with BlueConduit

Halifax Water, serving the regional municipality in Nova Scotia, faced significant challenges in building a reliable lead service line inventory due to incomplete and uncertain historical records. The utility's process for validating line material was time-consuming and expensive, relying heavily on costly hydroexcavation inspections that were shared with other maintenance projects. To improve confidence in its inventory while reducing the resource burden, Halifax Water approached vendor BlueConduit for assistance.

BlueConduit implemented its predictive machine-learning model, which used Halifax Water's available data to predict the probability of lead in unknown service lines. The model was then refined through an active learning process where targeted hydrovac inspections were used to improve its accuracy. This solution from BlueConduit proved far more effective than simpler heuristics like building age, drastically reducing false positives. The results included a more efficient program that required fewer hydrovac inspections overall, lowering costs and accelerating the pace of lead service line replacement for Halifax Water.

Halifax Water