Each year, trillions of gallons of water pass through private and city water lines across the world. Up in Ontario, Canada, a thinktank was created by several provincial construction unions and contractors to determine just how much of that water was being wasted through busted pipes in the ground. According to this article, in the thinktank’s 56-page report published this month, they suggested “communities need more money to maintain, repair, and replace aging and leaking plumbing that wastes hundreds of millions of litres of clean drinking water a day, and taxpayers tens of millions of dollars a year.” The article goes on to say that in Toronto alone, it’s estimated the city has been losing 103 million liters of clean water per day for the last 15 years. A liter is a little more than one quarter of a gallon, so they have been losing around 25 million gallons of water a day!
Water main breaks are one of the major ways water is wasted in both Canada and the US. The thinktank’s study found that the two countries average 700 water main breaks a day, which costs more than $10 billion a year to repair. However, leaks in small private lines can cause their own damage, leading to a buildup in costs to repair. The study says a hole in a water pipe as small as 1.5 mm (around 1/20 of an inch) can waste up to 3,570 liters (roughly 943 gallons) every 24 hours, costing around $15 a day in water. Of course, this is in Ontario, not the US. Yet, according to this 2014 NPR article, aging and leaking pipes account for 2.1 trillion gallons of lost water per year in America. The numbers may not be quite as devastating as Ontario’s, but lost water due to leaks and corrosion in water lines is a serious issue. This clearly happens to a lot of people and you may be one of them.
Is your water bill higher than you think it should be? Are there soft spots or pools of water in your yard? Is your water pressure much less than it ought to be? You may be in need of a water line replacement! Leaking water lines costs homeowners across America millions per year. Don’t be one of them! Contact Apex Plumbing today for a free estimate to get your water line replaced and to gain peace of mind that you won’t be one of the many paying the price for poor pipes!
