BPU District Heating customers will be seeing more efforts to track down issues in the district heating system, including some work that starts Monday.

Customers received a letter March 18 discussing two new actions that will be taken by the BPU: injecting a non-toxic tracing dye into the system temporarily, and using a thermal imaging drone to help identify hotspots in the system.

The non-toxic tracing dye will allow the BPU to locate any areas where a high amount of water may be escaping the system and show areas where a leak may be occurring. The dye will be injected beginning at 9 a.m. on March 31 and will be active in the system for about two to five days.

The drone will be flying the system in the spring and fall, working to gather data and identify leaks. It is noted in the letter that there will be no disruption to the system with the drone.

One of the more noticeable leaks of the district heating system recently was the leak in Brooklyn Square that disrupted traffic for a few days back in January. BPU officials said these efforts predate that leak and are their own initiative as a part of a constant review to continue system reliability, but that these efforts are also working to prevent any other event like that.

“The district heat piping in the ground is 35 years old, significantly past its expected life,” Derek Johnson, project manager for the BPU’s Retool District Heating effort. “To date it is holding up really well relative to its age, but we have to keep an ever closer eye on it to catch leaks as they develop.”

By working to find leaks early, Johnson added that the BPU can then repair them in the summer when the system is minimally loaded and when customers are not using their heating.

Alex Pickett, BPU operations manager of water resources, said the combination of the drone and the dye allows them to use thermal imaging to pinpoint hotspots that indicate leaking and the dye will show the magnitude of these leaks, and if there are leaks inside any buildings. The drone can be flown across the system regularly.

“We are actively flying the system now and analyzing the images for hot spots,” Pickett said. “When a hot spot is identified we validate it on the ground and then prioritize and schedule it for repair. For the dye, we will inject it into the system and see if and where it comes out.”

The dye will not affect the system’s performance and everything should work as normal on Monday morning, and it will only be in the BPU’s distribution system. The letter does note that if heating systems are older or in bad condition there is a chance for pinhole leaks that could allow the dye to traverse into someone’s system.

“People should let us know if they see green water pooling on the ground or in the basement of a building and we will come out and investigate to trace it back to a hotspot or issue in a building,” Pickett said. “This is the same dye that we use for dyeing the river green on St Patrick’s Day. It is completely safe and non-toxic; there is nothing to worry about.”

If green water is seen in someone’s system beginning on Monday, they are asked to call either Pickett at 716-661-1673 or Johnson at 716-661-1643, and BPU employees will come out to troubleshoot the situation. Pickett said all of this works together to support the BPU’s work to make the district heating system as reliable as possible.

“We are working hard to keep the District Heat System as reliable as possible while we are pushing for funding from the State of New York to replace and upgrade the system,” Pickett said. “We are making every effort to proactively identify and repair leaks using the latest technologies so that we can plan repairs for the least disruption to the community.”