Officials at Central Arkansas Water decided in 2019 to get serious about leak detection. So they bought a dog.
“Dogs can identify lots of things,” says Douglas Shackelford, director of public affairs and communications. “They are trained to sniff and identify something, whether it’s drugs or explosives or anything they can train on. Trainers can take that ability and instead of the dog sniffing out explosive material or gunpowder, they’re training on chlorine.”
Central Arkansas Water serves about 500,000 people in and around Little Rock, pumping about 68 mgd through nearly 2,800 miles of pipes. Vessel, a Labrador retriever mix, and handler
