Funny but not so funny
I don't know why this popped into my head today.
Sold my house 4 years ago. When I bought it in 86' and we moved it I noticed if I got up at night or if the house was really really quiet and you went into the bathroom or stood by the kitchen sink you would here a faint humming noise. Only noticed this at night.
It would sound like you held one of those Conch shells up to your ears.
Fast forward a couple of years the water pressure which was never great seemed worse. I had a friend who worked for the water dept in town and I had wired his new house. I talked with him and he said " the water pressure where you are isn't the best but we don't get complaints around there, we will come over and check it out could be the meter or sometimes the valve coming off the main get corroded". So they put a new meter in and shut the water off. Hooked up a hydraulic hand pump to the water line and with the main turned back on pumped something like a piece of cardboard back into the main to break off any corrosion. After that the water pressure improved a little.
Fast forward 10 years and during the winter the road in front of my house was buckling up a little. The town came out and fixed it.
Now its 12 years later and I am packing up to go on vacation for 2 weeks. The last thing is to cut the grass. I am down by the road cutting and the grass is soaked. This is in 90 degree July.
So I figured my water line was leaking even though we still had water in the house.
So I had that dug up and fixed what a mess, mud all over the yard.
Turns out the house had a septic tank which I knew.
When the house was switched over to sewer they hit the water line, so it leaked. For 12 years or more the water went into the old septic leach fields unnoticed
Except for the faint humming noise in the house which was caused by the leak and it was only herd at night when the water pressure was higher, and no houses were using water.
At some point the septic system had enough and the water got under the street and buckled that.
😊😊🤔🤔
Comments
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Well, better that your water line leaked into the septic than vice versa. 😄
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Your humming noise was most likely that fact that those pipes forgot the words. By placing Sheet Music near the water meter, you may have not heard that humming. I guess those singers were from a night club since you didn't hear them during the day time.
As for me, I only sing when my car is in reverse. I'm a backup singer!
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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as long as it is before the meter…
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WOW- I also have good hearing and many times hear stuff my wife doesn't. I agree with the above comments. I wonder how many water leaks (before the meter) remain undetected. I myself have a well, and the pump is in the basement where I can here it. I guess each system has it's drawbacks- Steve
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I too have a funny-not-so-funny water story. Some time ago, they repaved my street. The very next day, I could hear water running into the storm sewer, not far from where I expected the old galvanized water service to be. By coincidence, there was a water dept truck parked a few lengths down. I called him over & said "You hear that? It started yesterday." He listened for a minute, then his eyes got big & he replied "You should tell someone about that!"
I said "I just did."
The landlord of that place has filled the sinkhole in the yard several times now.
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I wonder how much water the water deps give away for free?
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the people that run any big municipal water system have an idea of how much water they put in to the system vs how much gets billed to customers. I suspect the loss is in the 10%-20% range.
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Looks like the average is 14%. Many water meters will under read as the components wear too.
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The Delaware Aqueduct north of NYC has been leaking an estimated 35 million gallons per day since the 1990's. They're building a 2.5 mile bypass around the main leak area so they can shut that section down for repairs. My sister lives near there and gets her water from that system.
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Imagine how much water my service pipe leaked in the 10-12 years it was leaking underground.
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In my municipality it used to be about 30% of water pumped went unmetered. I think they got it down 15%. (Categorized as leaks, filter washing and fire-fighting).
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They seem to be quite good at finding leaks in my area.
They go around and listen via some kind of rod they put down the meter boxes with headphones.
Now, how much has to leak in order for them to hear it? I have no idea but I am curious.
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
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I think those acoustic detectors are quite sensitive. I seem to recall that in the late 1970's or early 1980's, my parents had an in-ground oil tank that someone (oil company?) proved to be leaking very slowly, using an acoustic detector. They had to abandon the tank. Don't remember what the rules were back then in NY, if they had to dig it up or if they were allowed to fill with sand.
Last year an elderly acquaintance was told by her oil company that her oil fill line had been leaking, evidently for many years. A deck had been built over the fill line, so an extension had been put on it to make it accessible. But a portion of the line ran under the deck and down into the basement. Apparently the deck hid the leak for many years. Massachusetts Dept of Environmental Protection got involved, and required the deck and adjacent garage to be removed and the surrounding soil dug out until they reached clean earth.
The excavation ended up being an 8-foot-deep cone-shaped pit of about 20 foot diamater centered on the fill pipe location. They also had to cut a large hole in the block foundation wall and excavate in the basement to a depth of several more feet. Another friend who helped this 80-year-old lady navigate the project told me the ultimate cost (including rebuild of small garage and deck) was around $500k, and that fortunately the oil company's insurance paid for most or all of it.
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Not as much as the natural gas that PSE&G lets go into the ground.
NJ Steam Homeowner.
Free NJ and remote steam advice: https://heatinghelp.com/find-a-contractor/detail/new-jersey-steam-help/
See my sight glass boiler videos: https://bit.ly/3sZW1el0 -
I don't know about that, they both just go away, just in different directions.
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Then there is the Quabbin aqueduct built in the 30s to send water from the Quabbin reservoir in Western Ma all the way to Boston some 90 miles away. I guess it is a huge pipe but they say it leaks as much water as the water that gets delivered to Boston
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I don't know the history of the Quabbin Aqueduct, but I know the Hultman Aqueduct from Wachusett Reservoir to Weston leaked like a sieve for decades until the MWRA built the Metrowest Tunnel to replace it, then took it out of service and repaired it as a backup. In the 1970s the Quabbin system leaked so badly that it often exceeded the safe yield of the watershed; after several decades of repairs the system is now well within the safe yield. Low flow fixtures helped as well.
—
Bburd0 -
"Imagine all the people 🎶 living life in peace. You may say that I'm a dreamer, 🎶 but I'm not the only one."
Edward Young Retired
After you make that expensive repair and you still have the same problem, What will you check next?
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There you stand with your L.A. tan
And your New York walk and your New York talk
Single pipe 392sqft system with an EG-40 rated for 325sqft and it's silent and balanced at all times.
1
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