National Fix a Leak Week – March 17 to March 23, 2014
In cooperation with and supporting the sixth annual U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Fix a Leak Week, the BGJWSC would like to take this opportunity to remind homeowners to check their plumbing fixtures and irrigation systems for leaks.
During the regular course of business, the BGJWSC responds to leaks and helps identify whether a leak has presented itself on private plumbing, which will affect only your billing charges, or on the public side of the meter, which affects the cost of providing service to all customers. In either case, it is our collective duty to ensure that this precious resource is consumed, not lost to leakage.
It is not unusual for the most common culprit, the simple flapper valve inside the toilet tank, to cause loss of 10,000 to 20,000 gallons in one billing period. Homes that are kept for vacation, vacant rentals or empty commercial buildings are often the ones that present the greatest shock to those that receive the bill following a faulty toilet flapper. In fact, the quarter inch line that feeds a single toilet could pass as much as 400,000 gallons over the course of thirty days. With common indoor plumbing sized at 3/4″ from 1″, just imagine what loss might occur due to an unattended leak on a broken line.
All meters installed by the BGJWSC have a small dial that rotates when water is flowing through them, seen in the image below as the red star shaped dial. With all fixtures, appliances and outside taps turned off, the dial should not spin. If you see this dial spinning, please confirm that no toilets are running and ensure that the ice maker on your refrigerator is not cycling. If the dial still turns, you may indeed have a reason to contact a plumber or make the repair yourself. 
Our desire is that no one would be dissatisfied with the quality of our service, especially those that feel that they are being billed for service that they didn’t actually consume. As such, for those that receive sanitary sewer service calculated on the amount of metered water use, the BGJWSC offers a leak adjustment to those that have demonstrated appropriate repair of a leak situation. As conditions do apply, we encourage you to visit our Customer Service office at 700 Gloucester Street or contact us at 912-261-7100 for more information.
More information on this nationwide event is available from the EPA here: http://www.epa.gov/watersense/our_water/fix_a_leak.html