It’s Fix a Leak Week – and we’re honoring three cities that fixed leaks in February!

This week is the EPA’s 5th Annual Fix a Leak Week. American Water has produced a helpful guide to locating indoor and outdoor leaks for residential customers. Do your part and help us help you! Some local utility companies are handing out leak detection kits, and local businesses may offer reductions or rebates on water-efficient toilets, showerheads, faucets or more – check out your city or county’s web site for more details.

In San Francisco, a ruptured water main caused a street to cave in. Inconvenienced residents nearby woke up at 3 a.m. to the sound of car alarms going off, and water rushing through their garages, basements, and first floor foyers. One couple had just finished remodeling the bottom floor of their residence, only to lose all their hard work to the devastating effects of a burst pipe.

Meanwhile, in Saranac Lake, New York, a leak detection agency was brought in to assist in determining the location of a leak that caused the basement of the J.C. Penney catalog store to flood. Officials were having a hard time reaching the main, because it’s under 3-4 feet of frost, and the jackhammer they were borrowing from Lake Placid broke down. The water main was repaired five days later, after the town kept the water off and a boil order on – every time the town’s water was turned on, the basement would re-flood.

And in the middle of the country, Smithville residents are planning to purchase some water leak detection equipment of their own. The city recently renovated its water system, but is still losing 22% of its water. The state has a 35% threshold for municipal water leaks, but water plant supervisor Todd Bowman is hoping to be pro-active in order to avoid ever hitting that 35% threshhold.

Photo Credits: The San Francisco Examiner, The Adirondack Daily Enterprise, and NewsChannel 5 WTVF-TV