Black Canyon City Water Improvement District

 

 

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© 2015 BCCWID
Updated: 8/31/15
Webmaster: Bob Marley

High Bills & Leaks
The average monthly water use for a BCCWID is approximately 5,000 gallons. Many of our users use less than 1,000 gallons a month. A few of our customers use more water in a week than the great majority use in a month or more. The BCCWID is a domestic water supply owned and operated by the property owners in the District. Its sole purpose is to deliver water for consumption and bathing, not unlimited yard irrigation. It would be impossible to allow all of our customers to maintain an Eastern style yard on their property. Like many other towns, cities, villages, and rural water suppliers the BCCWID uses heavily tiered rates. The purpose of tiers is to promote conservation of water and insure the District will be able to continue to deliver domestic potable water.

The summer season is when owner/users notice large water bills. Their heaviest water use occurs in these months, especially in the last few years, as the summer monsoons have not delivered normal rainfall. Recognizing Arizona was in an extended drought, ADEQ encouraged the District to go to tiered billing many years ago. Unfortunately, people who use huge amounts of water for what is essentially irrigation, or those who do not maintain their property free of line and household leaks, are going to get large bills, some may seem to be ridiculously large.

What to do if you think you have a leak on your property:

  • Locate your meter box.
  • Most houses have a master shut-off valve. Turn it off.
  • If you have an irrigation system for plants and lawn, turn its master shut-off valve to off.
  • Now look at the meter and see if the small white triangle is spinning.
  • If it is moving at all you have a line leak on your property and it will have to be found and repaired. (Since our desert is very dry, there may not be any surface indication even when there is a massive leak. Outside pipes that are underground are occasionally cracked by vehicles driving over them).
  • If the white triangle is not moving, turn on the master house valve and check again.
  • If every water tap and connection is turned off in the house and the white triangle is moving now, no matter how slowly, you have a leak inside the house.
  • If the meter is still not moving, turn on the master shut-off for any timed irrigation system. If it is not the time to be on and the meter starts spinning then there is something wrong with that system.
  • Finding a leak requires logical progression through the options and a thorough inspection of pipes and attached appliances.
  • A leaking toilet can be isolated by placing food coloring in the tank and seeing if it leaks into the bowl.
  • Leaks are not easy to isolate and can hugely impact your water bill if not fixed.

A single tap left on continuously can delivery over 500 gallons/hour (In a day that would be 12,000 gallons and in a month that could be over 300,000 gallons). Your monthly water use can double, triple, or increase even more because of small leaks. Because of our tiered rates your monthly billing will increase even more than the increased water use alone would suggest.