the excitement at my house

When the problem of huge water bills came up at our strata council meeting in December, it never occurred to me the issue might impact close to home. For months a certain water meter connected to our complex has been registering unusually high usage. The city was blamed, the water meter was blamed. Several weeks ago we watched from our back patio window as city engineers gathered around the manhole in the walk behind us, discussed, watched, scratched their heads and finally replaced the water meter.

Yesterday plumbing trucks arrived at the complex. Apparently the new meter was still registering high volumes, and the boys from the plumbing company had come to sleuth out the source of the problem. They finally isolated it as a leak in a length of underground pipe that supplies the water to our building's sprinkling system. Twenty four cubic feet of water per day has been escaping!

And so began the big dig, by hand because digging is a delicate operation around a maze of pipes and wires -- and water! This was the sight from my back patio this morning.


We not only have this slurry of water-drenched earth in our back yard but high piles in the side yard and the front yard. It's a mess!


Hopefully tomorrow the fix will be complete, they can fill in the well they've dug and I will be able to again find my side garden.