Annual program promotes water efficiency and conservation
(Des Moines) – With spring home repair projects coming up soon, now is a good time to looks for drips and leaks that waste water in your home and lead to higher utility bills. Leaks in residential plumbing lead to nearly a trillion gallons of water wasted each year in the United States, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates approximately 10 percent of American homes have a leak that wastes 90 or more gallons of water a day.
The Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) joins the EPA’s WaterSense program partners in supporting Fix a Leak Week, March 16-22, and encourages Iowans to check for sources of home leaks in an effort to catch problems early and conserve water.
The most common water leaks in homes are dripping faucets, worn toilet flappers, and faulty valves. A shower dripping 10 times per minute wastes 500 gallons of water a year and a faucet dripping once per second leaks 3,000 gallons a year, according to the EPA. Simple fixes to household leaks could save homeowners about 10 percent on their water bills.
The EPA offers these tips to check for leaks inside and outside your home:
- Take an initial reading of your water meter and a second reading two hours later when no water has been used. If the meter reading is not the same, you could have a leak.
- Review your water bill to determine whether there has been a large increase in usage that you didn’t notice.
- To check toilets for leaks, place a drop of food coloring in the tank. Without flushing, wait 10 minutes to see if any color appears in the bowl. If it does, you have a leak.
- Observe faucet handles, hoses, gaskets and fittings for signs of water outside the pipe (such as rust, calcification, pooling water, mold, or dampness) that could indicate a leak.
- Check garden hoses and landscape irrigation systems before using them for the season to make sure no damage occurred from frost or freezing.
The EPA offers a checklist for identifying leak sources and additional resources on its website. You can also learn more about problematic leaks and water conservation at epa.gov/watersense.