LeakBird

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 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 [...]

With all of the rain California has been receiving over the last few weeks, water levels are back to 80% in Sierra snowpack terms and there is “drought improvement“.  The 167-mile stretch of the Hetch-Hetchy system, which provides 85% of the Bay Area’s water, can continue to flow at four fifths capacity.  But water restrictions [...]

There’s an excellent old article from 1997!?! on “submetering water” from the Journal of Property Management that’s surprisingly contemporary in its report, indicating how little has changed with regard to the promising yet cost-prohibitive installation of water meters per individual residential unit.
As I see it, the difficulties of water submetering in property management can be [...]

(Feb. 19, 2009, Aguanomics)
CL sent in this:
I recently got a letter from my apartment complex telling me they are switching from hot water sub-metering to a ratio-utility billing system [RUBS], and they will bill based on square footage of the apartment. From what I can tell, sub metering is superior because it gives people a [...]

(Feb. 6, 2009, The Chronicle-Telegram)
NORTH RIDGEVILLE — Every household in town soon will be getting a WiFi-like hook-up, but it won’t be for surfing the Web.
This technology will allow computer software in City Hall to record the amount of water used in each home, apartment and business and to quickly issue an alert about detected [...]

(Feb., 2009, WaterTech Online)

These days, most forward-thinking companies are exploring their “green” business practices, which help maintain and sustain good environmental quality. For water treatment or bottled water businesses, this concept makes perfect sense: Pure water is nature’s lifeblood and the source of your livelihood.
The opportunities to incorporate green into your water business’s operations are [...]