Water audit

Hey, it's better than an IRS audit!

Carmichael is moving to water meters! Ever since municipal water service has been available in Sacramento county, the service has been on a flat rate. It didn't matter how much we use, just how big our connection to the service is. I guess that is an absolute rate but it would only come into play if we had our water running full rate 24/7.

But beginning July 1, 2007, the water meter that has been attached to our water line since the house was built 15 years ago will finally be used for billing purposes. And although we're projected to actually have a decrease in our water bill, many of our neighbors might see an increase in their water bill. To assist customers in dealing with this increase, the area water utility is conducting "water audits" during this transition period and probably for some time afterward.

I wasn't particularly impressed with this water audit. The young woman assigned the task in our case was pleasant enough in her chatty way, as she measured the output capability of most of our indoor faucets declaring that we could restrict the output more in most cases. But we have gold colored fixtures and she only had silver colored restricters so that obviously wouldn't work. She gave us three "water bank" bags to hang in our toilets to reduce the amount of each flush but she didn't check to see if any of our toilets were wasting water already with large flushes or leaks in the flapper seal. She didn't want to check the outside at all although from her description, I can understand why. She was only going to see if any of the heads were misdirected or missing. Again, no check for leaking manifolds or valves improperly installed. Unrelated to anything else she talked about or checked on were a garden sprinkler and a moisture meter to see when watering is necessary. These she gave us pretty much as a gift with no explanation about how these would save us water or costs.

Still to come, according to the auditor, is a 6 page report explaining how we can save additional money by following recommended practices and saving more water. I can hardly wait.