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Massive leak - need help...

1K views 7 replies 7 participants last post by  Cortez8100 
#1 ·
I'll make this as short as possible -
I got my water bill from the City Municipals the other day.
The bill claimed I used 500,000 gallons of water in the span of a month, compared to 1,400 gallons the previous month.

So I go through every room, no leaks, basement is dry as a bone, and any crawl spaces are dry dirt as well.

Between city employees and my plumber they managed to find a leak near the "old" water meter that was capped off two or three decades ago. Possibly a rusty pipe the city said.

My plumber is a professional and his business partner does digging for a living as well (backed up sewers and things like that).

The plumber said there is absolutely no possible way half a million gallons of water leaked there because the top soil is dry as a bone, with some moisture down below, but definitely not THAT muddy. He said if that much water leaked out it would have flooded my yard, or basement, or somewhere.

Has anyone ever dealt with a leak of this kind? Because I simply find it extremely hard to believe that this amount of water can leak without have a single ounce of evidence. Everyone I talk to about this says it's ridiculous BS, even the city building inspector - yet the people at the municipals are claiming that it's "possible" and they "guess" this and
"guess" that but can't "say for sure" because they "just don't know".

Yet they still want my $1250 for water and $1250 for sewage, but they can't give me any answers. I'm waiting on a phone call from the Mayor in the next day or two. Just curious if anyone has faced something this atrocious before?
 
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#2 ·
wow.

have you checked the meter to see if it's still turning with everything in the house shut off?

that sounds like maybe a mistake. did you ask them to come back out and re-read it?

hard to believe.
 
#3 ·
Yeah the meter isn't turning.
Even had the plumber go look at the meter with me and the city worker.

All the city worker kept saying was..."I just don't know, I just don't have an answer"

They don't have an answer but they want their money.

I even checked to see if the meter was reading accurately, by filling a gallon of water and checking the meter again. It just drives me nuts that they can tell me I used an entire water tower in one month, or that it leaked in the yard and magically evaporated that fast.

My attorney told me to go to the newspaper and news channel if the Mayor doesn't resolve the situation.
 
#7 ·
500,000 gallons / month works out to a constant leak of about 11.5 gallons/min which is definitely possible.

We had a place in town that had a similar leak and the first clue was the same as yours, the high water bill. No water came to the surface (all pea gravel backfill) and there was no noticeable loss in pressure inside the house since the pressure was so high on the street to start with (around 100 psi). We never did find the leak, the homeowner just ended up running a new line from the curbstop to his house.
 
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