Water Bill

[KU Student Farm]

Hey friends,

The water bill at the garden has been exceptionally high the last two months, and I was wondering if you folks have any idea why.  For the last two months, the water bill has been over $40 a month! To put that into perspective, we haven't had a water bill over $20 in the last six months, and that was when we were growing food.  To my knowledge, the only water use right now is to water the chickens and the quail, which is only a few gallons a week.  

Has anyone been using water from there?  I am worried that there is some underground leak or something, as the high bill doesn't make a lot of sense.  

Thank you, and hope you're all having a nice and cozy winter! 

Best,

Becky 

[Dave Loewenstein]

Check with the City to make sure there's no leak. You should be able to see how much water was used compared to last year on the bill.

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Date: Fri, 15 Jan 2016 12:38:44 -0800
From: kufa...@gmail.com
To: lawrenc...@googlegroups.com
Subject: LCGP Water Bill

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[michael bradley]

Nope we haven't used any water for months. Could be a leak. 

Michael 

[KU Student Farm]

Hey all,  

So, it is definitely a leak. I met with a city representative last week to ask him some questions about who is responsible for paying for said leak.  Since the leak is coming from the meter to the site, it is the responsibility of the land owner (or in this case, land stewards) to fix it.  I happened to encounter some utility folks this afternoon that were doing work on the neighbor's meter and they were kind enough to stop and help us out.  They took the meter cover off and the meter was still running with the spigot off, confirming a leak.  We looked around and there is a puddle of water at the fence line right by the spigot.  I asked them to just turn the water off until we can figure something out, which they very kindly did.  I asked the utility folks about the kind of pipe that is laid there, and they said it is essentially a heavy duty garden hose, some kind of flexible plastic pipe.  It is a short pipe, so if it is just leaking to the west of the sidewalk, that shouldn't be too hard to fix ourselves. My main worry is, what if it is leaking under the sidewalk?  What do we do then?  

Either way, we have to wait for the ground to thaw to do any exploratory digging to find out.  Just wanted to update y'all on the situation.  

Thanks!

Best, 

Becky