TEWKSBURY — It’s a silent drain on both the environment and the taxpayer’s wallet. Every drop of water that leaks from a faucet or a cracked pipe in Tewksbury is water that has been extracted from the Merrimack River, processed at the treatment plant, purified to federal standards, and pumped through miles of infrastructure, only to disappear into the ground or down a drain unused.
The scale of the problem is highlighted by staggering data released as of April 3, 2026. Currently, the town is monitoring 70 active leaks across the system, including a residential leak that has been running since July 2025. Leaking at a rate of 48 gallons per hour, that single household has wasted 190,080 gallons of treated water to date.
In just one 24-hour cycle alone, the town recorded 11,500 gallons of leaked water across the system. At the current rate, these known leaks are on track to waste over 4.1 million gallons per year, a figure that is especially concerning given that the data currently comes from less than 50 percent of the meters in the system…