# Cottonwood Creek MUD 1 — water loss as filed

TWDB · PWS TX2270355 · TRAVIS County · filings 2015–2020
https://municorn.us/water-loss/tx/cottonwood-creek-mud-1/

> **Cite as:** Municorn.us, "Cottonwood Creek MUD 1 — water loss as filed", Municorn water loss index, https://municorn.us/water-loss/tx/cottonwood-creek-mud-1/ (source filings retrieved 2026-08-11).
> **Licence:** CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ — reuse and redistribution are permitted with attribution to Municorn.us and a link to this URL.
> **Caveat that must travel with these figures:** "Water loss" is at least three different quantities depending on the jurisdiction, and nothing here supports a comparison between states.

## Summary

Cottonwood Creek MUD 1 reported **13.1% non-revenue water** in FY2020, higher than 37% of the 1,775 Texas systems that filed that year. At the utility's own reported water rates that is **$10,600 a year** (modeled). Apparent loss at the TX median retail rate of $4.75/kgal, the median of 9493 rates filed by TX utilities themselves (2015–2024); real loss at $0.5/kgal variable cost. Substitute your own rate for an exact figure. 22.2% of its reported apparent loss is a TWDB default rather than a measurement.

**The water balance is not a check here.** TWDB derives water losses from system input minus authorized consumption, so this decomposition holds by construction.
- The figure moved from 2% to 13% between FY2017 and FY2020.

**Notes on individual filings.** TWDB records problems and granted waivers against a filing in its own export. Where we have found something it does not flag, that is stated here too.

- **FY2020.** The filing states a retail price of $0.50 per thousand gallons. Filed retail prices outside $1 to $40 are not published here, so that price and TWDB's cost of apparent losses computed from it are both omitted.

## Filed history

| Year | Non-revenue water % | System input (MG) | Cost of losses/yr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 13.1% | 98.9 | $10,600 |
| 2017 | 2.2% | 50.8 | $2,680 |
| 2015 | 6.4% | 38.5 | $1,930 |

Balance closure is `inapplicable` on every filed year above, so the column that repeated it is
not shown. TWDB derives water losses from system input minus authorized consumption, so this decomposition holds by construction. This is neither a pass nor a disclosure gap.

## How much of the loss figure was measured

Apparent loss is meter inaccuracy plus unauthorized consumption plus data handling error. TWDB supplies a default
for the last two when a utility does not measure them and flags which in its export: unauthorized consumption is a default on 95% of filings, data handling error on 30%. The median filing is 14.4% defaulted, and 1,329 filings are more than half. TWDB's own data-validity score averages 68.4 out of 100 on the 9,315 filings using a default, against 70.0 on the 429 using none — so the score does not tell the two apart.

[How much of a Texas loss figure is measured](https://municorn.us/water-loss/how-much-of-a-loss-figure-is-measured/) sets this out across the whole filed record.

## How the cost figure is built

Apparent loss is water delivered and never billed, so it is valued at the retail rate: revenue, recoverable inside a
budget year without capital work. Real loss is valued at variable production cost, because eliminating a leak saves
treatment and pumping rather than retail price. Where the filed audit carries its own cost of losses — as
TWDB's export does — those figures are used directly and no rate of ours enters the
calculation.

## Source

Texas Water Development Board — historical water loss audit data. Retrieved 2026-08-11. https://www.twdb.texas.gov/conservation/data/doc/water-loss-data/sources/historical-water-loss-audit-data.xlsx

The FY2020 loss figure: (system input − billed authorized) ÷ system input × 100, from system input volume at `2020!AP1650`; billed authorized consumption at `2020!AU1650` — in `data/archive/twdb/2026-08-11-7270fa7072e5.xlsx` (sha256 7270fa7072e51e70, retrieved 2026-08-11, https://www.twdb.texas.gov/conservation/data/doc/water-loss-data/sources/historical-water-loss-audit-data.xlsx), read by `src/scrape/tx.ts` at 87874f6647ff.

The annual figure in dollars: apparent loss × 1,000 × retail price + real loss × 1,000 × variable production cost, from apparent loss at `2020!BL1650`; real loss at `2020!BQ1650`; variable production cost, as filed at `2020!CF1650` — in `data/archive/twdb/2026-08-11-7270fa7072e5.xlsx` (sha256 7270fa7072e51e70, retrieved 2026-08-11, https://www.twdb.texas.gov/conservation/data/doc/water-loss-data/sources/historical-water-loss-audit-data.xlsx), read by `src/scrape/tx.ts` at 87874f6647ff.

Volumes are normalized to million gallons on ingest; the export reports them in the unit each filing states.

Figures are as filed unless stated otherwise. If a number here is wrong it is wrong in the filing or wrong in
our reading of it, and both are worth knowing: ammar@municorn.us

_Municorn.us · https://municorn.us/water-loss/tx/cottonwood-creek-mud-1/ · CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ · source filings retrieved 2026-08-11_

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## Compliance record

Violations on EPA's record as of 2026Q2: **3** (0 health-based).
Resolved: 3. Archived: 0. **Still open: 0.**

Nothing on the record is open as of 2026Q2.

Counted as distinct violations rather than as rows: EPA's export carries one row per enforcement action taken
against a violation. A violation is a breach of a reporting, monitoring or contaminant-level rule as reported
to EPA; it is not a measurement of the water.

Source: US EPA, Safe Drinking Water Information System, via the ECHO national download, 2026Q2.