New Mexico has spent the past year scanning the ground from orbit, and the results are starting to add up: 216 suspected underground leaks found across 28 participating water utilities, after satellites and artificial intelligence pointed crews to the right spots to dig. The program, called LeakTracer, pairs radar imagery with field verification to catch leaks long before a sinkhole or a spiking water bill would.
The New Mexico Environment Department runs LeakTracer statewide in partnership with ASTERRA, a San Diego-based company whose satellite imagery and specialized technology are built to locate underground pipe leaks, according to GovTech. The system relies on L-band synthetic aperture radar that, per NMED Deputy Director Breanna Anderson, can penetrate up to 10 feet underground, GovTech reports. From there, ASTERRA’s technology analyzes radar-return signals for patterns associated with moisture from treated drinking water, and the LeakTracer AI is built to tell that treated water apart from rainwater, groundwater and other sources nearby — because, as Anderson put it, treated water carries a different signature.
Once the satellite data flags a likely leak, NMED compares those locations against utilities’ GIS pipe-network maps, and field inspectors go out to investigate each flagged site, per the GovTech report. ASTERRA developed LeakTracer alongside NMED and engineering firm McKim & Creed, according to ECOS. The program uses satellite scans to help identify potential leaks.
From a Five-Town Pilot to a Statewide Push
New Mexico tested LeakTracer in five communities before rolling it out statewide, and the pilot’s results gave officials enough confidence to expand from small-scale testing into a full statewide strategy, GovTech reports. During the first half of 2025, that pilot identified more than 78 verified leaks and was estimated to save roughly 345,000 gallons of water a day, according to KRQE.
New Mexico launched the statewide LeakTracer service in January 2026.
216 Leaks, 181 Miles Inspected
In its first year, NMED and ASTERRA worked with 28 water utilities and inspected 181 miles of distribution pipeline, GovTech reports. That work turned up 216 leaks across the participating systems — 45 on main lines, 54 on service lines and 117 on customer-owned lines.
If every one of those leaks were repaired, the state estimates it could recover about 623.5 gallons per minute, or roughly 898,000 gallons a day, amounting to around 328 million gallons annually — equivalent to the yearly water use of about 6,400 New Mexico households, according to GovTech’s reporting. NMED also estimates that fixing those leaks could reduce annual water-production costs by approximately $505,000, a figure the department frames as a year-one summary projection. Those numbers describe potential outcomes only: GovTech is careful to note the estimated water recovery does not represent water already recovered, and the estimated cost reductions do not represent money already saved.
Repairs Remain the Utilities’ Job
Finding a leak and fixing it are two different things, and that gap falls on local utilities. New Mexico covers the cost of satellite-guided detection and on-site verification, but participating systems are responsible for paying for repairs themselves, a point KRQE’s reporting confirms as well. Utilities are responsible for carrying out the repairs.
That can be a real obstacle for smaller or rural systems, since repair costs and excavation logistics can challenge them, according to Anderson’s account to GovTech. Some water systems are eligible for the Rural Infrastructure Loan Program. Utilities that do complete repairs could direct the resulting savings toward infrastructure upgrades, additional repairs or managing costs for customers, per GovTech. NMED is also developing a statewide process to document completed repairs and calculate the water savings that actually result, rather than relying solely on projected estimates.
A Broader Push Across an Arid State
LeakTracer fits into New Mexico’s 50-Year Water Action Plan, which aims to conserve water and cut losses across public water systems statewide, according to GovTech. The plan specifically targets a 25 percent reduction in statewide water loss from public drinking-water infrastructure by 2040, per the state’s water conservation dashboard. The stakes are significant: groundwater supplies roughly 80 percent of New Mexico’s drinking water, and the New Mexico Groundwater Alliance has projected the state’s water supplies could shrink by 30 percent by 2050, according to StateScoop. Separately, New Mexico has estimated that fixing leaks statewide could recover about 2.5 billion gallons of fresh water, per a report from Engineering News-Record, though accounts of how much water is currently lost to aging pipes vary — some sources cite losses of 40 to 70 percent of treated water annually, while others put the figure as high as 40 to 80 percent.
LeakTracer is focused on rural water systems. ASTERRA has identified more than 174,000 leaks globally, according to Engineering News-Record.
