GRWA – How to Control Leaks on your Property
Why is Leakage Management Important?
GRWA is a small system with limited pumping capacity. This means that even small leaks can have a significant effect on the amount of available water.
The Grange Road Water system is experiencing excessive leaks on properties and the Committee asks everyone to do your best to eliminate leaks.
To put the challenge in perspective
- 2022/23 was a record year for leaks – we estimate around 30% of the water pumped into our system was lost to leaks on properties. This is 10% worse than previous years and may cause us to breach our abstraction limit of 9000 m3.
- Most leaks are on properties – over the last few months we have had 11 significant leaks, 7 were on members’ properties. In addition, we have a continuous leakage of 4000 litres per day. This is due to household leaks such as dripping taps, faulty toilets etc..
Finding leaks is difficult and we need your help, so here are guidelines on what you can do.
Guidelines for Reducing, Finding and Fixing Leaks
Please shut off your water at the toby when you are going to be away for some time. For your information, you may find when you return, that we may have turned off your toby if a leak is suspected on your property.
Many older houses have black alkathene pipe running from the toby to your holding tank. Black alkathene pipe can easily crack and so we recommend you replace it with blue MDPE plastic pipe. Please note that GRWA is responsible for delivering water to your toby only. After the toby, members are responsible.
Many properties have brass float valves. They corrode and have a life of about 10 years. We recommend you replace any brass float valve with a plastic float valve such as the Hansen Mini FastFlo
See https://www.hansenproducts.com/products/trough-valves/mini-fastflo .They only cost about $30 and are very easy to install
It is a requirement of GRWA that all connections to your property must be from your own house pump. You must not connect directly to the feed into your house prior to you holding tank float valve.
Please make sure you follow this rule. If you have house leaks, you will hear your house pump starting and stopping.
Look for leaks around your house – toilets and leaking taps are obvious places. But you may have a leaking shower tap or a dripping garden hose. Always turn garden hoses off at the tap – do not rely on hose fittings as these often fail
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