Fix a Leak

by Charlene Burgi

It’s National Fix a Leak Week—a week when we’re reminded to check our plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems and make any needed repairs to stop water waste.

Ironically, while visiting my granddaughter and a few out-of-town friends this morning, life presented a near water disaster that tied right into the “fix-a-leak” theme. The morning bustle found early risers lining up for showers and completing daily scrubs before granddaughter Kate rose and prepared for work. Within minutes of entering the bathroom she re-emerged in a state of shock wondering who last showered! It seems that she turned her back on the shower enclosure while waiting for the water to get hot enough to enter. Much to her surprise, water spurted up and over the top of the shower enclosure not only drenching her but creating rivulets on the tile floor before she could react to “stop the leak.”

Leaking showerhead

We laughed at her detailed account of the situation, and then investigated why we all managed to fulfill our bathing ritual keeping the water within its intended confines. The story unfolded as we surrounded the shower stall and tried to replicate the drenching. It seems that the last person in the shower had adjusted the shower nozzle when leaving, angling it into a position that dispensed an unwelcome stream of water. Water was pouring out the top of the showerhead before ever reaching the spray portion of the head. One could only guess how long the showerhead had been losing effective shower water!

Leaks are deadly to your water bill. Silent leaks are the worst, as they come packaged in many forms and can catch you unaware. A toilet that flushes without anyone in the room is not the work of a friendly water-waste ghost, but a silent leak that lowers the tank water to a level that causes the toilet to refill even when no one is using it. Sometimes a leaking toilet can only be found by adding food color to the tank, then checking back after 15 minutes to see if the color has seeped into the bowl.

Leaking sprinkler head

Water manages to find the easiest exit out of a pipe. While performing water leak investigations, MMWD’s Conservation staff often discover broken pipes silently leaking below ground. They also commonly find leaky seals around sprinkler heads throwing irrigation water out of the pipe before it ever reaches the nozzle— much like the showerhead misfortune Kate experienced this morning.

Water loss also can rear its ugly head when water pressure exceeds an irrigation system’s intended use. High water pressure may not show up as a leak by the conventional definition, but rather as misting into the atmosphere. This is as much a water-waster as a dripping faucet. Drip emitters can also pop off of a drip line when pressure exceeds the recommended amount of water flowing through the drip tube. The installation of a pressure regulator will correct these problems.

This week, check your water meter. Turn off all the water in the house and yard, then carefully remove the lid of the meter box with a screwdriver. Lift the meter cover and check that all the dials and triangle are not moving. If you see movement, you have a leak to find and repair. This is the week to investigate! While you’re at your meter box, snap a picture of your water meter for a chance to win a water-efficiency prize package through the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership’s “Fix a Leak Week” photo contest.

Remember, if you have water, you have the potential to find a leak when you least expect it, and it isn’t always found by an annoying drip, drip, drip. Just ask Kate!

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Fifth Annual Fix a Leak Week: March 18 – 24

by Keith Bancroft

MMWD and water agencies across the country are teaming up with U.S. EPA’s WaterSense program to promote the fifth annual Fix a Leak Week, March 18 – 24, 2013. This is to remind everyone to check their plumbing fixtures and irrigation system for leaks that, collectively, waste more than one trillion gallons of water from U.S. homes every year. That’s equivalent to the annual water use of Los Angeles, Chicago and Miami combined!

The Water Research Foundation conducted a study of the end uses of water in the average home and found that water leaks account for 14 percent of overall indoor water use. What does this mean, exactly? Considering that the study found the largest end uses of water in the average home are the toilet (26 percent), followed by the clothes washer (22 percent) and shower (17 percent), the water lost to leaks (14 percent) is almost equal to the amount used for showering! So, next time you’re taking a shower, imagine that the same volume of water running down the drain is being lost to leaks—every day! And if you’re in the shower, you won’t have to look very far to find the most common source of household leaks: your toilet.

Our Conservation staff has conducted over 3,600 site visits to homes over the past five years, testing over 7,500 toilets for leaks during this time, and found a leak in almost 20 percent of all toilets tested. Yikes! So, there’s good news and bad news here. The bad news is that about 20 percent of toilets in our service area are leaking, and each leak can waste hundreds of gallons per day. The good news is these leaks are often fairly easy and inexpensive to repair.

The Alliance for Water Efficiency’s “Home Water Works” website offers several helpful videos on how to test your toilet for leaks and how to make repairs if you do find a leak.

If you’re thinking of taking it one step further and replacing your old toilet (or faucet or showerhead) with a new high-efficiency WaterSense model, the “Home Water Works” web site also offers several helpful do-it-yourself videos on fixture replacements.

Now that you know where to look, what to look for, and how to stop it from happening, get out there and Fix a Leak!

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Doing the Right Thing

by Charlene Burgi

The approach of mid-March, daylight saving time, rising evapotranspiration (ET) rates, and prolonged dry weather are indicators that we are long past due for testing our irrigation systems for leaks, breaks, and clogged heads and emitters before we turn them on for the season.

This spring chore is as necessary for saving water outdoors as is installing a high-efficiency toilet or repairing a leaking faucet indoors. One might argue that the water from a missing drip emitter is still watering the ground; however, the missing emitter is also reducing the water pressure in the line and starving plants “down stream” of their needed water supply. A clogged emitter prevents any water from getting out of the pipe, and a broken pipe is literally water down the drain without any benefit to the garden—but a sure bet of a high water bill.

What amazes most of us is our irrigation systems worked perfectly before we turned them off in the late fall. What creates this added chore in our already busy schedules? And if we do the right thing by checking before turning the irrigation system on, what is the best “down and dirty” way to approach it so we can move on to more exciting things going on in our lives?

First, check the controller for the time and date setting to determine if winter power outages tampered with that detail. A controller will default to watering ten minutes every day on every station. That is a lot of water! Replace any back-up battery if your controller has that feature. Many new controllers have a built-in feature that maintains the settings for a given period of time without a battery back-up. If your controller is malfunctioning, this might be the time to consider upgrading to a smart controller: Once calibrated to your garden, it will free up time now spent monitoring the controller on a weekly basis.

Missing nozzle

Next, manually turn on each individual station from the controller and walk around that station listening and watching for water hissing or spurting in the air. Exposed broken pipes will sound like an uncontrolled gushing hose. Broken pipes underground may present themselves by puddling or lifting the lawn in a pillow-like fashion. Watch for sprinklers that no longer spray to the adjacent heads on the same station. Lack of water pressure indicates a break in the pipe somewhere. The stations with drip emitters should be producing the same amount of water at the end of the line as at the beginning, closest to the valve. If you are on a sloped area, be certain you have pressure-compensating emitters installed so there is an equal distribution of water despite the elevation variation in your garden.

Emitters that are plugged need to be cleaned out. Replace missing emitters and repair damaged drip tubing so water is not escaping where it isn’t wanted. Remember you are directing water to the root zone of plants to prevent unnecessary weed growth elsewhere. Contact a licensed QWEL landscape contractor if you experience a lack of communication between the controller and the valve that opens the station to be watered. This could indicate a broken wire, malfunctioning solenoid or a problem with the controller. You might want to leave this chore to the pros.

Each station requires this type of scrutiny before you turn on the irrigation system for the season. You won’t regret taking the time for this chore. Fix problems now, and your water bill will reward you for your efforts!

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The Plumber’s Helper

by Shasta Phillips

I spent many boyhood hours complaining about having to go to school. My grievances mostly revolved around feeling what we were taught had no practical application in the real world. I’d argue that knowing the major export of Montana would not help me land a job, that making a battery out of a potato was useless if it couldn’t power my Walkman, and that learning arithmetic had become obsolete with the invention of the calculator wristwatch (because, of course, they would never go out of style).

Even though I often resisted school as a child, returning to the classroom now as a representative of MMWD and teaching water conservation principles is one of the highlights of my job. The turnaround is quite dramatic. Also, when I go to schools now, I am far less likely to be shoved into my own locker.

While my understanding of education has expanded, I still keep in mind the grievances of my school days. I try to make a connection between the subject and the students, explaining why it’s important and how it personally relates to them. I find this is easily done with our “Do-It-Yourself Water Conservation Kit,” where students are taught how to check and improve their water efficiency at home. We then follow up to provide free showerheads and faucet aerators to replace wasteful ones.

This connection really hit home for me during one of these follow-up visits to a Corte Madera school. I asked the class to share some stories and results from their home surveys. After many of the typical stories, one beaming fourth-grade student explained how she had found a severe toilet leak. Not only that, but when her family’s plumber had trouble finding the water meter, she was able to assist by showing him its location. Her fellow students were riveted, and they gasped at the realization that an adult professional required the aid of one of their own to fix a serious problem.

These hands-on activities are designed to empower our students and to show they can make a positive impact on the world. Seeing these effects in action renews my commitment to education and helps make up for what I missed in my boyhood schooldays. To learn more about MMWD’s FREE water education programs for schools, just visit our website.

And since I know you’re wondering, the major export of Montana is bulk wheat.

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Misplaced “Save Green, Save Blue” Coupon Results in Six More Weeks of Winter!

by Keith Bancroft

According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on Groundhog Day (February 2—this Saturday!), then spring will come early; if it is sunny and the groundhog sees its shadow, it will retreat back into its burrow, signaling that winter weather will continue for six more weeks.

In many areas of the U.S., early morning celebrations are held where people gather to watch the groundhog emerge from its burrow. The most famous of these events is in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania (setting of the 1993 movie Groundhog Day), where “Punxsutawney Phil” is the resident rodent prognosticator. However, many areas have jumped on the furry bandwagon and have adopted their own marmot mascot—Dunkirk Dave, Susquehanna Sherman and Wiarton Willie to name just a few. And for those towns where alliteration just isn’t their thing, we have the likes of Gus, Uni, Spanish Joe and, of course, Jimmy the Groundhog.

Few people know that our local groundhog, Marin Mortimer, is the star of his own annual festival and proudly emerges from his burrow every February 2 under the watchful gaze of curious onlookers, eager for news of what weather the next six weeks will bring. His last appearance was, unfortunately, not his proudest moment. For just after Mortimer fully emerged from his burrow, he realized he’d left his “Save Your Green, Save Our Blue” coupons on the kitchen table, and hastily retreated into his burrow to retrieve them, inadvertently signaling to the collected crowd the advent of six more weeks of winter. By the time he’d re-emerged from his cozy den, coupons in hand (rather, in paw), the crowd had disbanded, leaving Mortimer alone to rejoice at his lack of shadow and the imminent arrival of spring.

Moral of the story: Don’t forget to grab your coupons before leaving the house. Visit MMWD’s “Save Your Green, Save Our Blue” coupon page to get discount coupons from local retailers and plumbers on leak repair, high-efficiency toilets, smart irrigation controllers, rainwater harvesting tanks, mulch, native plants and more.

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On a more somber note, we wish to extend our sympathy to our favorite retired gardener and blogger, Charlene Burgi, on the recent passing of her mother. Our thoughts are with Charlene and her family. We look forward to hearing from Charlene when she returns.

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Fourth Annual Fix a Leak Week, March 12 – 18

by Keith Bancroft

Once again, MMWD is teaming up with WaterSense to promote Fix a Leak Week. “No problem,” you say—you fixed all your leaks during last year’s leak-fixing week. Well, fixing leaks is like a real live “whack-a-mole” game—you think you’re done and another one pops up someplace else.

Nationwide, more than 1 trillion gallons of water leak from U.S. homes each year. That’s why WaterSense reminds Americans to check their plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems each year during Fix a Leak Week. You can start with our “How to be a Leak Detective!” brochure. It will help you identify the most likely sources of leaks inside and outside your home.

For more information on what you can do to save water, please visit the WaterSense website. Launched in 2006, WaterSense is an EPA-sponsored partnership program that seeks to protect the future of our nation’s water supply by promoting water efficiency and enhancing the market for water-efficient products, programs and practices.

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Water Robbers

by Charlene Burgi

Water robbers are sure to pilfer your money and sap our natural resources. The thief may be obvious or it could lurk about in unseen places silently skimming off all your efforts to conserve water. Some of the obvious robbers can be found in leaking faucets, missing drip emitters, broken water pipes or misdirected irrigation nozzles that water the sidewalk or driveway instead of the roots of the plants. You may also be robbed by forgetting to turn off the irrigation controller when Mother Nature provides adequate rain to feed plants.

These obvious robbers can be eradicated. For example, most leaks can typically be fixed with a wrench, the right washer, and the little time it takes to replace the worn washer.

A missing drip emitter can be located by listening to the water run through the irrigation drip tubing. It will sound like a loud hiss and sometimes will present itself by spurting water into the air or the ground. When this type of leak is discovered, you can apprehend the culprit by installing a new emitter or using a goof plug to fill the hole made by a no-longer-needed emitter. A watchful eye can detect misdirected nozzles. If you see water spraying onto the sidewalk or street, you can easily adjust the nozzle and send the water back to the root zone of the plants.

Sometimes water robbers are not as evident. Unbeknownst to you, these stealth robbers silently siphon water off by way of a worn toilet flapper or an underground split from a damaged irrigation pipe. Sometimes a swing joint located underground can crack due to an irrigation head or riser getting hit. This underground leak can tap your wallet when it comes time to pay your water bill.

These silent water robbers can be exposed by using the right tool. The best sleuthing tool for toilet leaks is food coloring. A bit of food color dropped into the top of the toilet tank can unmask a faulty flapper as colored water seeps into the bowl below. Replace the flapper with the same make and model that you remove. Better yet, if you aren’t sure about the make and model, take the old flapper to the hardware store with you.

Underground culprits are more difficult to locate, yet we possess a very useful tool that exposes these hard-to-find water robbers. This tool is typically found at the curb of our property. I am talking about your water meter. The best way to use this tool is to turn off all water-using appliances including automatic pool fills and icemakers, then watch for movement on the meter. If the low-flow indicator (usually a triangle shape) is moving, there is a leak. If your meter does not have a low-flow indicator, use a black marking pen and put a dot at the tip of the sweep hand needle and check back after about 30 minutes. If you find movement and suspect an irrigation leak, look for wet spots in the landscape, mushrooms, or vegetation that is growing faster than other like plants. You might need to root around to see if water puddles up. This is not a task you want to do when it is raining! Or call a leak detection service to see if they can pinpoint the problem.

By capturing these marauders, you can rest easy knowing the savings can be used for better things in life.

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Waste Not, Want Not

What NOT to do

Although local reservoirs are fuller than average this summer, there’s never enough water to waste. We rely on rainfall stored in our reservoirs for 75 percent of our water supply. Since we never know how much rainfall the next year will bring, it is important to use water wisely to help ensure a reliable supply for the future.

Most of our customers are very conscious about using water responsibly and may not even realize they are wasting water—so that’s why we point it out when it comes to our attention. Eliminating water waste can also be an easy way to bring down your bill.

Under the district’s Water Conservation Code, the following practices are considered water waste and are unlawful:

• Washing sidewalks, walkways, driveways, parking lots and all other hard-surfaced areas by direct hosing, except in cases of public health or safety hazard. Use a broom instead to save water and get a little exercise at the same time.
• Water leaks or breaks that are not repaired within 48 hours of discovery or notification from the district, whichever occurs first. If you find a leak or have a pipe break, please make repairs promptly.
• Non-recycling decorative water fountains. Make sure that any decorative fountains recirculate the water they use.
• Wasteful irrigation practices that allow water to run off or overspray the areas being watered. Water plants, not pavement!
• Any excess water runoff flowing onto the public right of way at a rate of one gallon per minute or greater, with the exception of storm water and naturally occurring groundwater. By keeping water on your property under control, you’ll also help prevent polluted runoff that can harm our creeks and the Bay.

If you see a water waste condition—or if you need help identifying the cause of water waste on your property—email our Water Conservation Department or call (415) 945-1520.

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Overlooking the Obvious

by Charlene Burgi

Have you ever become so accustomed to a situation that you fail to see a problem exists? This isn’t about seeing a branch that needs to be cut back but never getting to it, or noting the weeds that need to be pulled around the garden. I am talking about being totally oblivious to a very obvious issue.

While taking a road trip up north a few weeks ago, we drove into a gas station to fill up. Before leaving half our paychecks behind for fuel, I noticed the irrigation system running. I thought that was odd since northern California has experienced so much rain lately. What was even more glaring was the water shooting up in the air, bubbling over the curbs and flooding the gutters like I was in a water park instead of a gas station. Cars and trucks sloshed in and out of the flood; the gas station attendants skirted the overspray as if they were shooing away a pesky fly; and people paid for their purchases and moved on without notice. I was ready to break out the hip boots if I stayed much longer! Instead, I grabbed my camera to capture such neglect and promised to use the pictures in my next water waste workshop.

Note the narrow strip of lawn with the bubbling broken nozzle. How do you water that without overspray?

They say timing is everything, so I will forfeit waiting for the workshop and share these beauties with you:

Thar she blows!

As I said, timing is everything. Recently, we have gotten a rash of water waste calls. Irrigation systems are coming on as the rain pours down on our already saturated landscape; car tires are splashing through puddles left from overspray and runoff filling our gutters. Let’s raise our awareness. That irrigated water will benefit the root systems of our plants far more than it will the asphalt and concrete as it finds its way into the storm drains! Remember to plant your irrigation water in the garden!

And speaking of pictures, do you have photos of the Eco-Friendly Garden Tour that you would like to share? Our wonder-woman, Ann, has started a photo album of gardens that were featured on the tour. We would love to see more. Please send more photographs to her so she can add them to the album. It is a way for others to share the experience of and be inspired by these lovely gardens.

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Save Money, Save Water with Conservation Coupons from Local Businesses

If you’ve been putting off replacing that old water-wasting toilet or leaky irrigation system, now’s a great time to tackle those home improvement tasks. Through the “Save Your Green, Save Our Blue” program, MMWD is partnering with local plumbers and retailers to help customers give their homes and gardens a water-efficient upgrade for less.

For a limited time, participating businesses are generously offering coupons for a variety of water-saving products and services. You’ll find discounts on leak repair, high-efficiency toilets and showerheads, smart irrigation controllers, rainwater harvesting tanks, mulch, native plants and more.

Just visit marinwater.org to browse and print the coupons that best meet your needs. You’ll save money and water while supporting local businesses—and you’ll finally be able to check those home and garden tasks off your “to do” list.

Thank you to these participating businesses:

Plumbers
Benjamin Franklin Plumbing
Burkell Plumbing, Inc.
Gene Burch Plumbing Heating & Air
Gotelli Plumbing Company
P. Femenia & Sons, Inc.
Roto-Rooter
Starving Plumbers
West Marin Plumbing

Retailers
American Soil & Stone Products
Fairfax Lumber & Hardware
Jackson’s Hardware
Sonoma Compost Company
The Urban Farmer Store

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