Online Editor’s note: Club member Michael Pattinson has a gripe. Water officials all over the country beg us to conserve water by not watering lawns, washing cars or taking long showers. Pattinson, a former president of the California Building Industry Association, has this reply: “Fix leaky pipes, and then I’ll stop watering my lawn.”

Here is what water officials don't tell us: They want us to save water but at the same time are responsible for water mains that leak 20 percent to 50 percent of clean, treated water, preventing it from reaching our faucets.

Water, water everywhere, but …
The English get as much rain as we in California get sunshine. So I was somewhat surprised on a recent trip to the land of my birth that authorities issued “hose pipe bans,” urging residents not to water their lawns, wash their cars or take long showers.

Water is not their problem; they have plenty. But they don't have good pipes. In parts of England as much as 60 percent of treated water escapes from bad pipes, wasted. My brother said I should be thankful that Californians did not have that problem, and I smugly congratulated myself.

However, when I returned home I was not off the plane but two hours before hearing a similar plea for water conservation. Water authorities said the California snow pack is at a 20-year low. But they did not tell us that California water mains are in such bad shape that in parts of the state, as much as 30 percent of our clean, treated water leaks from lousy pipes. An obscure paragraph on the state's own web site gives the rest of the story:

“A detailed water audit and leak detection program of 47 California water utilities found an average loss of 10 percent and a range of 30 percent to less than 5 percent of the total water supplied by the utilities. The July 1997 Journal American Water Works Association cites examples of more than 45 percent leakage.”

If your tire leaks, surely you would fix the hole before adding more air. But water seems to be different. It supposedly is cheap. So instead of repairing the holes spewing more than 50 billion gallons a year from California pipes alone, we just force more water down there, and hope the day of reckoning comes on someone else's watch.

That day is today. Our pipes are bad, and getting worse.

We take a bath
This water waste often costs us in unexpected ways. If we pump 45 percent more water than we should, then homebuilders pay 45 percent more in developer fees for water hook-ups than we should. And water availability is now a standard for new home development. The same people who do not take care of their water mains are now telling us we need to guarantee more sources of water before they allow us to build a new home.

Same with sewer pipes. A sewer pipe filled with holes often lets in more water than it lets out sewage. Fixing the holes can reduce by 60 percent the flow into a sewage-treatment plant. So here's the choice: Fix the pipes or hit developers up for the money for bigger sewage treatment plants that are not necessary.

United Nations scientists say global warming will damage our water supply in 20 years. True enough. But we don't have to wait because bad pipes are putting our water supply in jeopardy right now. And it is happening all over the world.

- In Auburn, New York, city officials are losing 50 percent of what industry insiders call unaccounted for water or non-revenue water.

- In Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and other large eastern cities, the number is between 30 and 40 percent.

- In Kansas, 61 water districts lose 30 percent or more of their water.

- In Manila, New Delhi, and other large cities in the developing world, 75 percent of the water is lost to bad pipes.

American pipes alone leak enough water to supply all of California all the time.

Admittedly, by comparison, we are water spendthrifts in California, with most places losing somewhere around 20 percent, plus or minus a few points. Auburn loses 25 percent. Fresno is near 20 percent. San Francisco is 16 percent. That is still twice as high as water experts recommend as the maximum level of leakage. And information about non-revenue water or unaccounted for water, to use the industry lingo, is painfully difficult to find.

Let them leak?
It is difficult to imagine, but water leaks in California even have their own lawyers and lobbyists, as is the case with the All American Canal in the Imperial Valley. It loses 25 billion gallons of water every year, enough for millions of people. The canal, like most pipes, leaks because of negligence. But lots of people in Mexico and a few on this side of the border like it that way.

Thirteen years ago, residents of Mexico sued the federal government to stop it from fixing the leaks. Why? Because the residents depended on the water for farming. Fixing the leaks would ruin Mexican farms, American habitat and just about everything else in between. So they say. Therefore, for the last 13 years, 25 billion gallons of water a year leaked out of the canal. However, this spring, a court ruled that water officials can start fixing the leak. One down, millions more to go — but it's a start.

More good news
There's more good news: It used to be the only way to repair a pipe was to "patch and pray," or dig it up and replace it with a new pipe.  The first fix was a short-term solution, and the second was expensive and disruptive. Now there's another choice: This spring in Monroe, Michigan, city officials were among the first to fix water leaks using a new technology that allows pipes to be repaired from the inside without digging.

This trench-less technology has been used on sewer and oil pipes for decades, but until now, has not been available for water pipes. This new technology reduces the expense and disruption of fixing and maintaining water pipes. And it makes for a new day for water pipes.

Which means that before officials ask us to tolerate dirty cars, brown lawns and empty pools, they will be able to do something for themselves that would be even more effective: Call a plumber.

Club member Michael Pattinson is President and CEO of Barratt American, a California homebuilder. He is also President and CEO of McCanna Water Company, a small utility that serves a master-planned community, and former President of the California Building Industry Association.

Fix Your Leaks

Club member Michael Pattinson’s excellent article should lead you to two calls to action:
1. Call the water authorities in your city and ask about the amount of water wasted because of leaks in the water system. Ask what is being done about the leaks, and what is the cost of such waste? And consider writing a letter to the editor in your local newspaper.

2. Fix the leaks, however small they may seem, in your house. That drippy faucet? Fix it. And that irritating toilet that runs and runs? Fix it. And if you need help with the toilet, check out “Toilet Troubleshooting” by Mike Berger.