480,000 gallon water bill in less than month

[Jo-Dee Gancayco]

Well, solve this riddle, or as the leak detection technician called it, “mystery”. I have a rental home out of state that is currently vacant. I received a call from our property manager that the city had called her to let her know that they were shutting g off our water. Because we had used 250,000 gallons of water and prior to them shutting it off we had used an additional 130,000 gallons of water towards our next billing . There were no visible signs of a leak or flooding anywhere in the house. It was the dead of winter and a ton of snow around the house so it was hard to tell if there was a leak outside somewhere. We just had a new yard and sprinkler system installed this summer. I had visions of my house in a swamp. Leak detection came out. Only leak they found in the house was slow residual dripping from a shower head that stopped when they turned on the hot water? They didn’t find any evidence of an underground leak. The leak detection engineer could find no leaks other than small dripping leak from shower head. The utilities tech from the city was there testing the meter and it seemed to be working fine. Anybody here ever experience something similar? Everybody involved in detecting and resolving this issue are stumped and I am on the hook for nearly $1000.00 water bill for less than a month of service. TIA for any suggestions or theories. You

[Bill B.]

Definately sounds like an underground leak. A garden hose on full blast is 6gpm, 360 gph. So you’re talking more than 1000 hours, more than 40 days at full blast garden hose speed. 

Turn off the water at the house and then turn it back on at the street and I bet you see the meter start spinning. That will show you the leak is between the meter and the house. 

MOST water companies will refund 50-100% of the water bill one time if you show them an invoice for the leak repair. They could also tell you if the water was running constantly (I don’t know why they don’t call or auto shutoff at 2-3 days, but they don’t) but that won’t be of much help as we’re going to assume it was. 

You say the sprinkler system is new. That’s where I’d start if it turns out the leak isn’t between the meter and the main shutoff. All the water should go past the irrigation main shutoff and you can open the plug there to see if it’s the cause. 

Good luck and let us know what it turns out to be.