By Charlotte Lane – Chair of West Virginia Public Service Commission
A simple household leak can cost you a lot of money. Most are simple to fix once you locate
them, but leaks can be sneaky. The Public Service Commission of West Virginia is participating
in Fix a Leak Week, March 18-24 by encouraging everyone to be vigilant in finding and
repairing leaks in household plumbing fixtures.
Did you know that across America, homes waste more than a trillion gallons of water every
year? That is shocking. The average home loses almost 10,000 gallons of water per year to
simple leaks. That is the amount of water it takes to wash 300 loads of laundry. And every drop
that is wasted still shows up on your water bill.
When you repair a leaking faucet, a running toilet, or a broken sprinkler head, the money you
save on your water bills will soon pay for the small cost of fixing those leaks.
To help save water, the Commission offers the following tips:
Look at your water bill. If a family of four uses more than 12,000 gallons per month, you could
have a serious leak. Turn off all water, then read the meter at the beginning and end of two hours.
If the meter changes, you likely have a leak.
Monitor possible toilet leaks. Squeeze a few drops of food coloring in your toilet tank. If you see
color in the bowl after 10 minutes, you have a leak. Worn flappers often cause silent toilet leaks,
but new ones are inexpensive and easy to install.
If your faucet drips, tighten connections and replace the aerator with a WaterSense labeled model to save water without a noticeable difference in flow.
Leaky showerheads caused by a loose connection between the showerhead and the pipe stem can usually be fixed by wrapping the pipe stem with pipe tape.
Fix a Leak Week is sponsored every year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and
WaterSense. You can find detailed instructions for how to find and fix those sneaky leaks at
www.epa.gov/watersense/fix-leak-week. We also have more ideas for how to save water on the
PSC website. Visit www.psc.state.wv.us and click on “Lower Your Water Bill.”