Leaking toilet

[Paintedcow]

I am no fanatic when it comes to a lot of these things that are said to be dangerous, but I think I'd get those lead pipes replaced. At the same time, I know it can be costly if they have to dig up from the house to the water main, and replace the pipes.

By the way, does anyone know what kind of pipe they use these days to go from the water main to a house? Back in the 60's I know they were using copper, but that could be real costly these days. I assume they are using some sort of poly (plastic) these days.

I'm curious, what year was your house built to have lead pipes? I know they have not used lead pipes for a real long time.

[Taxed and Spent]

In some areas some unions had such political clout they continued using lead pipes far longer than everywhere else, by code.

[Ed Pawlowski]

We pay about .04 per gallon. $1600 is about 40,000 gallons

[DerbyDad03]

I was listen They were explaining that the issue with the pipes in Flint was not that the pipes were lead, but that the city government changed the composition of the water, by changing the water source, and that is what made the pipes unsafe.

According to the "expert", lead pipes are perfectly safe as long as the buildup of minerals inside the pipes isolates the water from the pipes. That's why no one was getting sick in Flint prior to the change. Once they switched to a new water source, the composition of the water dissolved the minerals and left them "clean" enough that the water was now being contaminated by the lead.

While this seems to make sense, had I been face to face with the expert I would have asked "Does that mean that people were getting sick when the pipes were first installed (before the buildup of the mineral layer) or is it dependent on time before the pipes corrode enough to be dangerous, by which time the mineral layer has built up?"

I'm sure someone in this fine group knows the answer. ;-)

[Taxed and Spent]

it does make sense, as proven by archaeologists studying the ancient Romans.

[Ed Pawlowski]

My first house had a lead service line. It was built in 1948 but we bought it in 1966. It was never a problem in the neighborhood as hundreds of houses were built that way.

Flint may have other pipes along the way that are lead and that would be problematic. The service line only golds a small amount of water and it takes time to accumulate. One flush of a toilet would clear it out.

Millions of houses have lead soldered pipes and it was not a problem either until someone decided it should be.

[Moe DeLoughan]

In this case, the bill is sewer and water combined (and possibly charges for some other municipal services as well), and often/usually the sewer charge is based on the amount of water used. So you can't determine the amount of water used just by dividing the full amount of the bill by the per-unit water cost. Simplest to just ask the guy how many units of water used was noted on this quarterly bill, and how that compared to a typical quarter's usage.

[Taxed and Spent]

Yeah, really cracked me up when someone decided the new 1% lead plumbing items were not good enough, so we needed 0.5% lead max, which then were deemed no good, so we needed 0.1% lead max, which was then deemed no good, so we need 0.0% lead max.

Soon we will find out people are starting to have lead deficiencies.

[Ed Pawlowski]

I forgot to mention that my rate included sewer. Of course, rates will vary considerably around the country so it could easily be plus or minus

10,000 gallons.

[Paintedcow]

40,000 gallons is a small lake....

Divide that by 90 days, and thats about 444 gallons per day, or 18.5 gallons per hour. I can see a running toilet wasting 18.5 gallons per hour. With this broken down into smaller units, it makes sense that a water bill could get that high.

[philo]

My house was built in 1898 and they were using lead pipes into the 60's

The pipes they use now are not copper ...they use something like PVC but don't know exactly

[philo]

Here they bill by the cubic foot. there are various additional charges such as sewage

BTW: Some may not know that the root word for the word "plumber" comes from the Latin "plumbum"

The chemical symbol for lead is Pb

[Paintedcow]

That's a bizarre way to measure water. I wonder how many gallons a cubic foot of water is?

Yea, I know a lot or most cities charge a sewer fee. I know a guy who lived in a city, had a well, and he was a gardner. Most of his yard was a garden. They got city water and FORCED everyone to switch to the city water, and to fill their well with concrete (or they would be fined every year). As soon as all the wells were gone, the city added a large sewer use fee to the water bills. Even though none of the water this guy used in his garden was going down the sewer, he had to pay the sewer fee. The following Spring, he tore out his garden, and planted grass seed. He was old, and he died a few years later. His wife said that once the garden was gone, he lost his will for life.

Yea, I know about the word "plumber" and it's origin. Those guys really had to work hard, and were very skilled too. When I was young, I got to see a plumber connect some lead pipes. The process involved melting lead into a ball around the joints of the pipes, and it was all done by hand. It really took skill to do it. Today, almost anyone can screw iron pipes together, glue PVC, or crimp PEX. Even sweating copper pipe is simple compared to working with that old lead pipe.

[Moe DeLoughan]

When the city I live in decided to hook up to the adjoining city's water and sewer, we were glad, because we live by a lake and too many crappy neighbors were in the habit of pumping out their septic tanks into the lake. Things got considerable less nasty once we were all hooked up to the sewer system.

As for our wells, we were told we could keep them, but for outdoor faucets only. My family was the only one in the neighborhood who decided to keep it. That was a half-century ago, and the well is still going strong. I did replace the pump a few years ago, since my dad had installed it in 1969, and I figured it was on borrowed time.

But there's a reason for requiring the sealing of wells: open wells are access points to the groundwater, meaning potential sources for polluting the drinking water of everyone using that aquifer. It is much more prudent to seal the wells than to assume that nothing is going to get put down any of them, deliberately or otherwise.

I had a neighbor talk to me about re-opening his well, or having a new one drilled. I told him the costs would make the payback period way too long to be practical.

[Ed Pawlowski]

7.4805. Common metering for water.

Many towns will allow a second meter for water with non-sewer use. Some will even allow wells for irrigation. He may never have known to ask.