LeakBird

Toilets run.
Dana Haasz
Conservation Administrator, SFPUC
If you are a property manager, a landlord, or a water manager, or if you would like to be, this e-book is written for you.
We at LeakBird have done hundreds of hours of research over the past two years and would like to share with you what we have learned.
This e-book [...]

(March 5, 2009, AZStarNet)
Customers of the Marana water utility will begin paying more for their water on March 27.

The Town Council on Feb. 24 approved an 8 percent increase in rates for the Marana Water Department, which serves about 5,000 customers.

It is the first water-rate increase for the town in more than 10 years, said [...]

(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 [...]

(March 6, 2009, David Zetland, Aguanomics)
(via DW) The Mayor’s office sent out this press release [pdf] yesterday:
San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders is calling on all San Diegans to step up water conservation efforts in the wake of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s state of emergency declaration for California’s water supplies.
“The Governor’s message is right on target,” said [...]

Yesterday I was talking to a San Francisco plumber named Jim.
“You know the real reason water rates are going up?” he asked me.
“Because the water utilities’ revenues are down in these troubled times,” I replied.
“Yes, but it’s actually deeper than that,” he said.  “We’ve gotten more water efficient.  We’re not using as much water.”
“I find [...]

(Feb. 20, 2009, The Kansas City Star)
KC’s Water Services Department is discussing the possibility of up to 90 layoffs, Mayor Mark Funkhouser’s budget SWAT team heard Friday.
At the same meeting, the budget panel proposed asking the department to chip in $4 million to help the city get through its budget crisis.
If the City Council approves [...]

(Feb. 16, 2009, Channel 3000)

Officials Say Customers Use 30M Gallons Of Water Each Day
Officials said that toilets are targeted because they send so much water down the drain, stressing local water sources and local wallets. The new, green-friendly utility program is out to change all that, WISC-TV reported.
Madison Water Utility general manager Tom Heikkinen said [...]

If you’re a landlord or property manager, there are certain things you shouldn’t be doing when it comes to water conservation in your buildings.  We’ve compiled the top seven “Worst Practices” here:

 
Not Monitoring Your Tenants’ Running Toilets: The toilet is the single biggest culprit when it comes to in-building water waste.  There are lots of [...]

(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 [...]

In my four years as a property manager, responsible for several buildings in San Francisco, one question that has come to mind time and time again concerns tenant proactivity with regard to reporting problems with respective units.  It seems that there are three main factors that push tenants to report problems:

The problem will directly effect [...]