LeakBird

(June 2, 2009, UPI.com)
A Tampa, Fla., couple said it took them several months to resolve the issue of a monthly water bill for more than $21,000.
Ralph and Diana Salgado said their water bill usually falls between $21 and $110 each month, but their July 2008 bill from the Tampa Water Department totaled $21,600, indicating that [...]

(May 16, 2009, The Chicago Daily Herald)

Q. I have been renting a duplex unit for more than three years. A week ago, my landlord told me the water bills have been getting very high and that she was thinking about charging me for water. My lease states that I am not responsible for water unless [...]

(May, 2009, Janet Portman, American Apartment Owners Assocation)
Q: I’ve lived in a 40-unit apartment building for the last five years. Until now, I have paid for water, as required by my lease, based on a submetered water system.
Recently, the landlord said the meters are broken and she has decided not to fix them, claiming [...]

In order to calculate how much your toilet wastes in a city like San Francisco, we need to know the water footprint of your entire building. Of course, if you’re a property manager or landlord, you’ll be especially interested in this, as tenants don’t foot the water bills anyhow.  I’m going to give facts from [...]

If you recently received a high water bill, there’s a better than 90% chance that it was due to a running or leaking toilet.
Of course, in order to know that your water bill is a bit above the norm, you ought to know your typical, average monthly or bi-monthly water bill.  In a recent post, [...]

There’s no such thing as a free lunch.
Milton Friedman

It can be said that we don’t value what we don’t pay for. To tenants who don’t foot their units’ water bills, a running toilet may only mean a minor audible nuisance.  To a landlord or property manager, a running toilet means a higher water bill and [...]

The manager relies on systems, the leader relies on people.
Unknown
Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.
Murphy’s Law

When it comes to running toilets, you can’t rely on your tenants to report them, unless you have a system in place. In other words, people depend on systems. Chapters 5 and 6 will explore systems in further [...]

(April 20, 2009, The Plain Dealer)
Landlord James Kelly isn’t convinced. He has wrestled with the division for four months over a $1,300 combined water and sewer bill — five times larger than normal for a house he owns in Cleveland. The house is empty, and at one point the water was turned off for repairs. [...]

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
George Berkeley
Before we move on, let’s rephrase Berkeley’s famous question:
If a toilet runs in the bathroom and no is around to hear it, does it make a sound?
The latter part of this chapter will address [...]

Want to use more water?  Pay for it.
David Zetland, Aguanomics.com
The Water Myth is the myth that we have an endless water supply, renewing itself ad infinitum. How can we not believe in this myth when even our cats can drink from the potable water in our toilet bowls, for which we pay less than [...]

Perhaps you’re new to the field of
property management or landlording, or
weathered by years of experience. Two
things, however, you hold dear no
matter what level you operate from.
Your two most precious resources
are MONEY & WATER.
If you have cash flows that are secure,
you don’t have to evict your tenant
due to foreclosure.  If you have a
secure water supply, you [...]

Property managers, landlords and water companies or utilities consider two resources their most precious:

Money
Water

Without secure cash flows and water supplies, their businesses will be under water almost instantaneously.
Because 95% of landlords and property managers pay their tenants’ water bills, it’s natural that they’re interested in where they can most effectively manage and secure the [...]

The Boston Globe recently ran an op-ed about water conservation in rental properties entitled, “Do Environmentalists Rent Property?“, which also has some fantastic comments from landlords and tenants in the greater Boston area.  The author wonders if she’s the only one who is a good tenant when it comes to not using more water than [...]

(March 16, 2009, The Water Blog, Portland Water Bureau)

March 16-20th is the EPA’s first, annual Fix A Leak Week.  Fix A Leak Week is sponsored by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program, which seeks to protect the nation’s water supply by promoting efficient products and services and educating the public about water conservation.
According to WaterSense:

11,000 [...]

(March 16, 2009, Robert Stavins, The Huffington Post)

Throughout the United States, water management has been approached primarily as an engineering problem, rather than an economic one. Water supply managers are reluctant to use price increases as water conservation tools, instead relying on non-price demand management techniques, such as requirements for the adoption of specific technologies [...]

The average household US water bill varies widely from state to state and municipality to municipality.  Small town household water rates fall somewhere between $1.00 and $2.00 per 748 gallons of water or HCF (hundred cubic feet).  Large city household water rates are from $2.00 to $3.00 per 748 gallons of water.  (Nationally, water rates [...]

(March 10, 2009, The Orange County Register)
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on Californians to reduce water use in the face of severe drought conditions, 78 households in The Reserve neighborhood of San Clemente were resting easy.
Those residents had signed on to participate in The Reserve Outdoor Sustainability Project, a study measuring the effects of efficient [...]

(March 7, 2009, MSNBC)
Using the back yard of a Tierrasanta resident as a backdrop, Mayor Jerry Sanders called on San Diegans to get serious about water conservation.
Sanders revealed what he has done personally to conserve and showed clear disappointment in the overall efforts of San Diegans.
“Despite some successes, we still continue to fall shrt of [...]

(March 7, 2009, AZCentral)
A Carefree resident is challenging Cave Creek’s water-rate hike that would affect 9,000 water users in the northeast Valley.
Jim Peirce, a customer of Cave Creek’s municipal water system, took out petitions for a referendum that would reverse legislation to raise water rates in Cave Creek and parts of Carefree and unincorporated [...]

Many landlords and property managers, such as Jeff Porter at USA Landlord, establish excellent “water conservation programs” for their tenants, involving a number of elements:

Tenant Education
Tenant Motivation
Installation of Water Conservation Devices

While it’s essential to have a conservation program for your buildings, being proactive with tenants who don’t foot their own water bills can take a [...]

(March 4, 2009, The Associated Press)
Authorities say a North Dakota man who clashed with a city official over an unpaid water bill got into an 8 1/2-hour standoff with deputies that ended with a SWAT team member shooting him in the shoulder.
Morton County Sheriff Dave Shipman said George Fischer threatened the Hebron (HEEB’-run) city auditor [...]

(March 2, 2009, The Houston Chronicle)

Water bills in Houston are poised to go up about $2.26 a month for an average homeowner under a plan City Council is expected to begin weighing today.
Under procedures put in place after 2004 – when water bills went up as high as 10 percent for many residents – rates [...]

Acoustic water leak detection has been around a long time. It predominates in the water industry when it comes to listening for leaks in underground pipes, in order to protect and secure municipal water supplies from catastrophic underground leaks.  A couple of companies that come to mind are SubSurface Leak Detection, Inc, Davis-Inotek Instruments and [...]

(March 2, 2009, The Richmond Daily News)
Richmond’s water and sewer line systems are old, worn down and some think expensive.
Richmond Third Ward Candidate Terrie Lee Stanley addressed the Richmond City Council on Wednesday night to make a plea on behalf of residents.
Stanley said she had been contacted by 13 residents just in one day about [...]

I’ve written about how to calculate your San Francisco water bill, but I thought it might be useful to know how the SFPUC functions and just how many landlords and property managers are getting excessively high water bills due to the likes of tenants’ running toilet conditions everyday.
Back in June of 2008, I spoke with [...]

 
I recently came across an insightful 2006 document (pdf) from New York’s Department of the Environment on water/ sewer billing, water metering and water efficiency, put together for New York landlords and property managers.
I know that it’s now three years old, so some of the information is perhaps dated, though in essence I would hazard [...]

(Feb. 19, 2009, MSNBC)
CLEVELAND – Thousands of people in the Cleveland area are facing huge bills for water they claim they didn’t use.
Water bills for more than $1,000 are arriving at local homes, putting a major strain on families already stressed by the economy, reported NewsChannel5’s Duane Pohlman.
Jill Laverdiere got a bill from the city [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, MyFoxAtlanta)

ATLANTA – Angry water customers filled a state house room to air their complaints about extremely high water bills in the city of Atlanta. And Georgia lawmakers say they may take action to cap water rates in certain circumstances.
(Original Article Here)

(Feb. 17, 2009, Atlanta Journal Constitution)

Unaccredited college owes $214,000; King assistant asks radio listeners to help pay.

A lion of the civil rights movement took to the airwaves Monday in a last-minute pitch to keep the water flowing —- and the doors open —- at Morris Brown College.
Meanwhile, some members of the Atlanta City Council said [...]

(Feb. 14, 2009, ApartmentSearch.com)
A water bill can easily drip away your hard-earned savings if you’re not paying attention. Saving on your water bill isn’t just the green living thing to do; it also saves you money. Reducing your water usage can be simple and painless.
Unlike your electric bill, gas bill or trash bill, your water [...]

(Feb. 13, 2009, The Atlanta Journal Constitution)
Atlanta water officials say they’ve discovered one reason why some recent water bills were sky high: Computer software in about 450 water meters miscalculated usage and charged homeowners much more than they should have.
Watershed Management Commissioner Rob Hunter said the department discovered the problem involving some of the 2,800 [...]

(Feb. 11, 2009, AZ Central)
Increasing numbers of Chandler residents are late paying their municipal ) utility bills and city officials are urging the cash-strapped to call the city to avoid water shut-offs.
Jim Crocker, customer services manager for utility services said about 5 percent of the city’s 71,859 utility accounts are delinquent — more than double [...]

(Feb. 2, 2009, LoHud News)
Peaceable Hill homeowners vehemently protesting an “outrageous” increase in their water bills may have found some relief from the town.
More than a dozen residents showed up at a Town Board meeting last week to vent their frustrations about a $167 spike in their quarterly water bills, arguing many people may have [...]

(Jan. 29, 2009, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
Atlanta does not have a problem with its water billing, it has customers who don’t pay its bills.

In fact, the city is “doing a wonderful job” dealing with its 1.2 million customers.

Those were the highlights from Rob Hunter, commissioner of Atlanta’s Watershed Management Department, during a 45-minute session with the [...]

(Jan. 27, 2009, The OC Register)
Residents will pay more for every shower they take and every dish they wash starting next month.
On Tuesday night, the City Council voted to approve raising water rates by 20 percent next month. Several council members said they reluctantly supported the raises, and did so only because of the rising [...]

We’ve been watching water rates jump here and there, 5%, 10%, sometimes 20% or 30%, all across the nation for the last year. But shocking news was delivered today that San Diego customers may soon have a 200% to 400% water rate increase on their hands!
There’s some SERIOUS groundwork (or groundwater-work) for water rationing, followed [...]

(Jan. 22, 2009, The Patriot Ledger)

With nearly a third of Randolph’s water and sewer customers behind on their payments, the public works board may need to increase rates to cover the shortfall.
“We understand as much as anyone how tough people have it. Unfortunately, people are up against it,” Public Works Superintendent David Zecchini said. [...]

(Jan. 22, 2009, Rome News-Tribune)
Small businesses appear to be reacting with more concern than larger businesses to increases in the rates the city charges for “fire line services” on water bills.
For some, those bills have risen from double digits to triple digits. For a 6-inch water line — the most common diameter — the [...]

(Jan. 21, 2009, Frank R. Rijsberman, AlterNet)

So, is the planet drying up? Not exactly, but a growing number of people are sharing a fixed amount of water that is badly managed and polluted.
Sri Lanka’s celebrated twelfth-century king Parakramabahu reportedly said, “not a single drop of water received from rain should be allowed to [...]

(Photo Courtesy of Collectors-Badges.com)
Aguanomics water virtuoso David Zetland recently did a 26-minute interview with Bloomberg Radio that’s well worth listening to. Among a myriad of thoughtful points, one caught my attention in particular: The costliness of water rationing.
Zetland was referring to a tack Santa Barbara took in the 80’s during another big California drought, whereby [...]

(Jan. 19, 2009, Aguanomics)
A few months back, I blasted East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) for their badly-designed water conservation scheme. Last week, I got my water bill for the past two months, and now I see that I was too kind.
EBMUD is really NOT doing a good job at handing the water shortage.
Here [...]

(Jan. 18, 2009, The Plain Dealer)
If you live in a suburb and can’t get answers about your sky-high Cleveland water bill, you might want to look to your local city hall for help.
That’s what Solon and Twinsburg residents did with unresolved complaints they made to the Cleveland Division of Water, which supplies water to [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, ENS)
Eight water conservation and control projects along China’s longest river, the Yangtze, will be underway by 2011 to improve water use and protect the environment, a water conservation official said Tuesday.
Cai Qihua, director of the Yangtze Water Resources Commission, announced the projects during the commission’s annual work meeting in Wuhan, the [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, Winona Daily News)
Water rates in the village of Trempealeau, Wis., could increase by 199 percent to fund water-quality improvement projects expected to cost between $2.6 and $3.2 million, said Village Administrator Travis Cooke.
The village board held a public meeting Wednesday about the increase, though no residents attended.
The village has been unable to [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, North County Times)
Despite protests by residents and farmers, water rates in Escondido will rise sharply Feb. 1 for residential customers who use more than 7,000 gallons per month and for virtually all agricultural customers.
City water officials say the increases are necessary to encourage conservation during the state’s worsening drought.
They say the increases [...]

(Jan. 17, 2009, AccessNorthGA)
The Forsyth County Board of Commissioners is implementing increased water and sewer rates to help offset projected revenue shortfalls.
The residential water base rate will change from $12 for the first 3,000 gallons to $12 for the first 1,000 gallons. The senior citizen account water base rate will change from $9 for [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Aguanomics)
David Zetland, an agricultural and resource economist at the University of California, Berkeley, talks with Bloomberg’s Tom Keene about the economics of bottled and tap water, conservation, and global water supply and management.
The 26 minute interview [.mp3] is — in my not-humble opinion — pretty damn good.
In it, Keene and I [...]

(Jan. 16, 2009, Crescenta Valley Sun)
New water conservation ordinances passed this week by the Crescenta Valley Water Board will go into effect in May for water district customers, according to Christy Scott, program specialist for Crescenta Valley Water District.
The new regulations come on the heels of the district’s vote last month to once again increase [...]

(Jan. 13, 2009, The Consumerist)
Here’s another good reason to monitor your utility bills. A woman in Illinois saw her quarterly water bill shoot from $150 on average to $3600, after the village where she lives finally fixed a broken outside meter that for 25 years misreported her home’s water usage.
Scharie Freeman has only lived [...]

(Jan. 13, 2009, New Mexico Business Journal)

Albuquerque residents are conserving water even more than ever it seems.
Customers of the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Authority used six gallons fewer per person per day in 2008 than in 2007. That brings the metropolitan area’s water usage per person down to 161 gallons, which is the lowest on [...]