Imagine
returning from a much-needed vacation only to find your house flooded due to an
unchecked leak or water main break.
What if the damage were not immediately apparent, and a smaller leak
resulted in an astronomical water bill during the exact period you were away
from home? Without visual
confirmation, could you trust your water utility?
In October 2008, I
wrote about Rick Baur, a resident
of Ogden, UT who returned from vacation to find that he had been billed $9,700
for the alleged use of 1.4 million gallons of water. Unfortunately for Baur, the city claimed the 1.4 million gallons total
was correct and demanded that Baur pay the entire
amount of the bill. The mystery of
where the 1.4 million gallons went is still unsolved, and, at the time I
originally discussed Mr. Baur’s situation, I asked: “What responsibility does
the city have to investigate the cause behind this eye-popping meter
reading?”
If meters
are improperly installed or maintained, they can wreak havoc. Case in point: Atlanta, GA. Just this month, Atlanta water officials announced that they have finally
tracked down the source behind some eye-popping water bills: About 450 meters
miscalculated usage and charged homeowners for more water than they had actually
used. In some cases, residents saw
their bill go up by up to 1,000%, and, despite protests, the city pushed forward
on collection, employing bill collectors and shutting off service to
noncompliant residents. Unlike the
Baur’s case, residents in Atlanta will be eligible for refunds,
and—hopefully—will have their service restored.
But meters are not the “bad guys”
in either of these stories. In
fact, if anything, these anecdotes just further prove the point that we have
taken water for granted and have operated for too long without any real
accounting of how much water we use and lose in our communities.
In the July/August 2007 issue of Water
Efficiency, we highlighted the Seamount Estates community in Washington
State. Described as an idyllic
vacation retreat (and home to about 50 retirees and seasonal residents), the
community began to notice a rise in its electricity bills in 2005 and a water
leak was suspected. By 2007, the
solution implemented two years prior had made significant headway—thanks to a partnership with state and
local agencies, Seamount Estates had implemented an extensive leak detection and
monitoring system, aided in part by the installation of water meters at all
residences served by the estate’s water system. Herbert “Skip” Rand, circuit rider for
the Rural Community Assistance Corp. (RCAC), described the new meters as
“wonderful tools for finding leaks.”
Finding
the missing water not only helped the community with its power bill, it also
helped stave off real property damage that could have occurred had the leaks
been allowed to flow unchecked. In
one situation, the team discovered a broken water line inside of a house owned
by a member who was away at the time.
“You could actually hear the leak from outside,” says Derek Zock, of
Evergreen Rural Water of Washington (ERWoW). “When we located the leak, we were able
to shut the water off at the valve box and then advise the homeowner that they
had a bad leak inside. There was
already a lot of water damage, but
by shutting it off I’m sure that it helped save part of the
house.”
Rand
agrees, adding that the owners were very appreciative. “Seeing that meter spinning saved the
house; that gave us a kind of hero status,” he says.
Sometimes
a shock to the system is what is needed to correct destructive behavior—and
that’s the positive I see coming out of scenarios like those in Ogden and
Atlanta. Just like that
post-Christmas credit card bill, water meter results can open up the eyes of a
community with hard numbers on how much water is flowing in and out of its
boundaries.