Cottonwood Place resident Angela Thompson was shocked in January when she received a letter from the City of Prince George instructing her to leave her tap running continuously
until May. Then she found out 800 residents have been asked to do the same thing since the 1960s.
"Your home has a history of the water service freezing and the City of Prince George requests that you continuously run a stream of cold water approximately the size of a
pencil," the form letter says. "Check the continuously running tap several times each day to make certain it is not closed accidentally.
"You may turn your tap off May 1, 2012."
The water spilled in each household is as much as 2,160 litres of water per day.
If 800 of the homes receiving the letter ran their taps from Jan. 1 to May 1, 209 million litres would be poured down the drain each winter. Multiply that by 50 years, and it totals more than 10 billion litres down the drain.
The idea is appalling to Thompson, who conserves water in her home through low-flow
toilets and low-consumption clothing and dishwashers.
"If you leave your tap running all day with the plug in, you'll flood your house. Eight hundred people doing that for five months at a time is absolutely ridiculous," she said.
Thompson ignored the letter and did not have any problem with her pipes freezing, she said.
Recycling and Environmental Planning Society (REAPS) executive director Terri McClymont said she hopes residents who received the letter, "would have the common sense to turn the tap off," when the weather doesn't stay well below freezing.
"It's a finite supply. We don't have endless water to use," McClymont said. "The less we use or abuse it, the better off we'll be in the future. We all have to take some responsibility for water conservation."
City superintendent of utility operations Blake McIntosh said College Heights and Hart are
especially prone to freezing pipes since water service lines were installed closer to the surface prior to being amalgamated with the city.
"We've had brand-new subdivisions experience the problem and subdivisions that have been around 50 years," said McIntosh. "We've inherited problems as we go along."
If there are problems with water service pipes freezing because they are not buried deep enough, the city should looking at ways to insulate them instead of instructing people to pour treated, potable water down the drain, McClymont said.
Fellow Cottonwood Place resident Darlene Fortin has received the letter on an annual basis from the city for 11 years.
"I just leave the tap to drip in my laundry tub," Fortin said.
In 11 years, she did have her pipes freeze once when the tap wasn't left dripping, she said.
Fortin said she'd be concerned about it if the city started mandatory water metering.
"You'd think it would be a lot of water," she said.
For customers with a water meter, the city figured a stream of water thick enough to be continuous - rather than a drip - would use 475 imperial gallons (2,160 L) per day.
"With our meters that's about $0.78 per day," McIntosh said. "Obviously if you have a water meter we can't charge you for that."
According to the city's 2005 Water Conservation Plan, a 15 per cent reduction in water consumption in the city would translate directly into a 15 per cent savings in water utility costs.
In December, city council approved a five per cent increase to the water utility rate.
Prince George's household water utility rates are predicted to reach $395.60 per year by 2016.
Nonetheless, city utilities manager Dave Dyer said leaving taps running is, "probably the most practical," solution to the problem of freezing water service pipes.
"The reality is it's hard to judge when to open and close the taps," Dyer said.
"We seem to see it happening when the frost is penetrating the ground. [But] it seems to come into equilibrium when the temperatures go up again."
Losing water service in the middle of winter due to a frozen pipe can be a serious inconvenience at best, he added, and can potentially cause serious property damage to a person's home.
"This is a way they can avoid having to deal with a costly repair on their side of the property line."
When the city does repair or replace water mains which are not to current standards, they do take measures to insulate the pipes or lay them deeper, he said.
However, the city can't change the depth of water service lines on private property.
"We don't have that control on the home owner side."
McClymont said she hopes homeowners are thinking of other methods of prevention such as insulating pipes, replacing shallow service lines with deeper lines, ensuring pipes within the home are heated and using heating blankets.
"It's going to cost them thousands of dollars if their pipes burst," she said.
"The less [water] we use, the less we all have to pay for it. Every little bit helps.
"We need to look at conserving water more, to reduce the possibility of a future water shortage."
Tips on how to conserve water in your home can be found online at www.env.gov.bc.ca/wsd/plan_protect_sustain/water_conservation.
