City of Tybee Island - Water & Sewer

Water Conservation... to save YOU money AND protect our environmental resources for the future.

Water Conservation

Below, we consider repairing leakages that result in loss of water as one of the best ways to conserve; dripping faucets and running toilets can result in a very large amount water being lost. The City has recently installed a networked, automatic meter reading system which can help us to inform you when usage varies from one month to the next, indicating a potential leak.

However, a great way to start conserving is to understand where your own water usage is starting - you may be able to cut back on some of your use when you understand where so much of your water goes. As charges for water use rise, both your base consumption as well as your leakage loss can contribute to your expenses! Estimate typical water use by using this tool at the US Geological Survey site, http://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/sq3.html, and be sure to check out some of the other pages and resources there on water conservation.

Leaks
A little leak loses lots! Just a slow drip can add up to 15 to 20 gallons a day, while a pinhole size faucet leak wastes 100 gallons in 24 hours!

Toilets are notorious for their hidden leaks. They can waste hundreds of gallons a day undetected. Leaks occur when the toilet is out of adjustment or when parts are worn, so it’s important to check the toilet periodically. Most toilet leaks are at the overflow pipe or at the plunger ball and aren’t hard to find.

If the toilet is leaking at the overflow, the water level is usually too high, although the overflow pipe sometimes may leak below the waterline. To stop this kind of leak, gently bend the arm until the valve shuts off the water about a half-inch below the top of the overflow pipe. Sometimes the valve is worn and will run like a leaky faucet and must be replaced. If you’re an experienced “do-it-yourselfer” you can do the job. Otherwise, call a plumber.
Plunger-ball leaks are only a little more difficult to spot. The best way to check is by dropping a little food coloring into a tank full of clear water and waiting to see if the color shows up in the bowl. If it does, you probably have a leak at the plunger ball, either because the ball needs replacing or because the mechanism is out of alignment. This is relatively simple repair for a “do-it-yourselfer.”

Aside from toilets, most leaks are found in faucets and are most commonly caused by worn washers. Check all the faucets in the house once or twice a year. If any of them drip after you’ve turned them off firmly, turn off the water supply line, take the faucet apart, and replace the washer. Usually it’s not hard, although some faucet designs do present a challenge. Any good household do-it-yourself book offers easy-to-understand advice if you need it.

BE A LEAK DETECTIVE

Your water meter is the best leak detector in your home. Turn everything off carefully, so no water is being used anywhere in the house. Then check the position of the meter dial for about 15 minutes. If it hasn’t moved, congratulations! You have a relatively watertight home. But if it has, start checking hose connections, faucets and toilets.

In fact, the City is installing automated meter reading systems that will set off an alarm at City Hall if water consumption is beyond normal for any given meter. This will give the City the opportunity to conserve water and potentially save you money not only for water bills but from potentially more serious water damage in or outside your home!

Water Saving Devices

Many different kinds of water saving devices and fixtures are on the market, ranging from special reduced-flow showerheads to water-thrifty shallow-trap toilets. A variety of showerhead adaptors also are available to cut down water use from existing fixtures, although a little self-control to not turn faucets on full-blast does just about as well, at no cost at all. See a good plumbing supply or hardware store for advice, particularly when it’s time to replace an old fixture in the house.

Here are some examples of how much water can be saved by using these devices.

Age and Type of Fixture	Water Use Rate (gallons per use)	Estimated Annual Water Savings in gallons per Household
Pre-1950 Toilet	7.0	26,538
1994 Toilet	3.5	9,337
Waterless Toilet	0	7,863
Pre-1980 Showerhead	8.0 gallons per minute	13,619
Pre-1980 Faucet	7.0 gallons per minute	18,212
Pre-1980 Clothes Washer	56 gallons per load	10,339
1990 Dishwasher	14 gallons per load	675

You can see that by replacing old, inefficient fixtures and appliances you can really save a lot.

SHUTOFF VALVES AND EMERGENCIES

Water heaters have been known to blow out and pipes have been known to burst. Occasionally, a faucet decides to become a fountain. When this sort of thing happens, you’ll want to know how to turn everything off before you needlessly waste a lot of water and possibly water damage.

Find the main shutoff valve that turns off water to the whole house. It’s usually located where the water pipe comes into the house. Check to see if you have a main shutoff valve that works. If you don’t, or it doesn’t, ask a plumber to stop by and correct the situation.

The Bathroom

You can make the most substantial reduction in your personal water use in the bathroom. More than 50 percent of the water used in an average home is used in the bathroom. Much of that water may be going to the sewer needlessly, adding to the volume of burden on treatment plants.

Toilets

About seven gallons of water goes into the sewer every time you flush your toilet. There are two ways to cut down: don’t use the toilet as a trash can and reduce the water per flush.

Toilets should not be used to flush away tissues, gum wrappers, cigarette butts, spiders, diapers or anything else that ought to go in a wastebasket or garbage can. All of us do it at one time or another, but using the toilet as a wastebasket is just a phenomenal waste of water.

Most toilets use more water than is really necessary and work just as well with less. So, you can put a brick in the tank to displace some of the water right? Wrong! The extra weight might crack your tank. Besides, the bricks may begin to disintegrate after a while, causing serious and expensive problems in the plumbing.

Use a plastic soap or laundry bottle instead. It’s safe, easy and inexpensive. Fill a few bottles with water to weight them and put them in the tank. Be careful not to set the bottles where they’ll jam the flushing mechanism. Be sure you don’t displace so much water that you have to double-flush to get the toilet to work. Double-flushing wastes water.

Showers, Bathtubs and Sinks

People used to think showers were less wasteful than tub baths, period. This isn’t always the case. Some people spend 10 to 20 minutes or more in the shower. Most showers pour out between 5 and 10 gallons per minute, and that can add up in hurry.

There’s no hard-fast rule. It’s a matter of self control. A partially filled tub uses far less water than a long shower, but a short shower uses less than a full tub. Time yourself next time you step under the spray. The odds are you really don’t need to stand there that long; you don’t need the shower running at full-blast.

When shaving and brushing your teeth; don’t leave the water running. Run as much as you need, then turn off the tap until you need some more.

The Kitchen

You can conserve water in your kitchen without sacrificing taste or cleanliness.

Automatic dishwashers claim the most water in kitchens — about 12 gallons per run. The secret here is to make sure the washer is fully loaded before you turn it on. It’s going to take 12 gallons whether there’s a full load of dishes or just a couple of cups.
Don’t bother rinsing the dishes in the sink before you put them in the dishwasher. Scrape them clean and let the machine do the rest.
Are you the dishwasher in your household? Remember not to wash dishes with the water running. A sink full of was water and one of rinse water will do the job just as well.
Don’t let the faucet run when you scrub vegetables or prepare other foods, either. Put a stopper in the sink and use the water collected in the sink instead.
And for a cold drink of water, don’t stand at the sink and let the water run endlessly. Fill a jug with water and keep it in the refrigerator for a refreshing cold drink anytime.

The Laundry

Many washing machines use 40 or more gallons of water a load, whether the washer’s stuffed full or loaded with only a couple of socks. Save up for a full load and make your water work efficiently. Or remember to set your machine for a lesser load, if it can be adjusted. As with the dishwasher, you save energy and electricity, as well as water.

For hand laundering, put a stopper in the washtub for both wash and rinse. Don’t let the faucet run.

Outside the Home

It’s a fact of life that when more water is used outside, more is wasted there. But you don’t have to let your lawn turn brown or the car turn dusty to conserve water. Use common sense instead.

Lawn & Garden

Locations that enjoy warm weather during most of the year often find half, or more, of the water piped into homes goes right back out through hoses onto lawns and gardens. Even in northern climates the same thing happens in summer months.

The basic principle of lawn and garden watering is not to over water. Don’t follow a fixed schedule. Water when the grass or plants show signs of needing it. During a cool or cloudy spell, you don’t need to water as often.
Heat and wind will rob your lawn of water before it can use it. Avoid watering on windy days, and you’ll avoid having most of the water go where you don’t want it. Water in the cool of the day to avoid excess evaporation and the chance of harming the lawn.
Weeds are water thieves, too, so keep the garden free of them.
Let water sink in slowly. Lots of water applied fast mostly runs off into gutters. Also, if you let water sink deep, the lawn will develop deeper roots and won’t need watering as often but will be more resistant to disease and wear. For a low cost soaker system, you can take a large plastic bucket and put several small holes in the bottom; by filling the bucket with water and letting it run out slowly, you can target trees or shrubs to help develop their root systems.
Make sure sprinklers cover just the lawn or garden, not sidewalks, driveways, and gutters. Use soaker hoses to direct your water more precisely to spots that need it.
Keep track of how long you water. A kitchen timer is a handy reminder for turning off sprinklers.
Mow your lawn to minimum 3” in height for maximum insulation to the soil from sun and wind to minimize evaporation. NOTE: Be sure to keep sharp blades on mowers; a “dull” blade leaves a ragged edge to the cut which promotes and spreads disease.
Minimizing watering to only once or twice a week actually promotes drought resistance of your yard by forcing deeper root growth and less time sitting wet overnight propagating fungal growth.
Also note that the city has an ordinance requiring that a water sensor be installed in property irrigation systems. The sensor should be of the type that recognizes rainfall and evaportion of that rainfall as well as moisture content of the soil at a reasonable depth considering the health of the root system of the grass/plantings. The better the condition of the root system the deeper that sensor can be, preventing wasteful and expensive overwatering.

Other Outside Use

Your garden hose can pour out 600 gallons or more in only a few hours. Thousands of gallons can be lost in a very short time.

When washing the car, use a bucket for soapy water and use the hose only for rinsing. Running water in the driveway won’t get the car any cleaner.
Another water waster is using the hose to sweep away leaves. Use a rake and broom to clean up sidewalks, driveways and gutters.

Consider a Shallow Well or Rainwater Collection System

Most reports attribute between 10% and 25% of domestic water consumption in the US to landscaping and garden irrigation. Actual use can vary widely, even beyond these figures, depending on local climate and the kind of plants used. If you could get that much taken off your water bill each month, you might be willing to consider having a shallow well installed!

Well water, since it doesn’t come from the City’s supply, costs nothing. Although creating a well for human consumption can be expensive, a shallow well for watering your garden is much less so.

A second alternative is to install rain gutters and a rain collection system to use for watering your lawn.

First, let’s consider wells.

“What is a shallow well?

A hole which has been dug, bored, driven or drilled into the ground for the purpose of extracting water is a well. A well is considered to be shallow if it is less than 50 feet deep. The source of a well is an aquifer. An aquifer is an underground layer of permeable soil (such as sand or gravel) that contains water and allows the passage of water.

Aquifers are replenished as rainfall seeps down through the soil. Ground water travels through permeable soil on top of hard or impermeable layers. Shallow wells usually are only deep enough to intercept the uppermost (or most easily reached) perched water table.”

- Source: Seattle & King County Public Health

There are two main types of wells:

Water table wells are those that penetrate into aquifers in which the water is not confined by an overlying impermeable layer. The level at which the soil is saturated is the water table. Pumping the well lowers the water table near it. These wells are particularly sensitive to seasonal changes and may dwindle during dry periods.
Artesian wells penetrate into ground water having confining layers above and below the aquifer. Rainfall enters into the aquifer through permeable layers at high elevations causing the ground water to be under pressure at lower elevations. Because of this pressure, the water level in the well is higher than the aquifer. A well that yields water by artesian pressure at the ground surface is a "flowing" artesian well.

To drill a shallow well on Tybee Island, follow the procedure below:

Contact the Zoning Department at City Hall for a permit. The fee is $25. You’ll need to show the proposed location of the well on a scale drawing of your property. Verify that the well will be on your property and not in a City right-of-way.
Call for underground utility detection at (800)282-7411. The driller can also have this service performed.
Position the pump above flood stage if at all possible. If your property is extremely low lying, provide at least a two foot platform.
Be sure your shallow well system is in no way connected to your home! Shallow well water is for outdoor use only. Any connection into your home’s water system can be a danger to health and cause for your well to be condemned.
Post signs at each and every tap served by your well, stating that the water is not potable. This includes outdoor showers.
Call the Tybee Island Water and Sewer Department for an inspection (786-4573, x122) to certify that you and your driller have complied with the requirements for public safety.
Enjoy your FREE water!

A water collection system is simple in concept – just put a rain barrel at the bottom of the drainpipe coming off your roof gutters. However, it couldn’t be THAT easy!

First, you need to HAVE rain gutters. Then, you have to make sure you have a way to prevent leaves and debris from going into the barrel, and you need to provide a method to remove debris that may get through and settle in the bottom of the barrel. To prevent mosquitoes from breeding, you also need to cover the top to prevent these and other pests from access to the water.

Finally, you’ll need to install a drip irrigation system to distribute the rainwater. You’ll either need to have the barrel raised at least somewhat to allow the water to flow out the bottom, or you’ll need to install a pump, switch, and low-water cutoff to finish off the installation.

You can find instructions for a rain water collection system at many sites online as well as at the library, or you can hire someone to do it for you. As with a shallow well, rainwater catchments do not provide water for human consumption, and you should label your taps as such.

More Information

To learn more about water conservation, please go to the EPD Water Conservation web site at http://www.conservewatergeorgia.net/. Detailed information on the drought can be found at http://www.georgiadrought.org/.

Annual Consumer Confidence Report for 2008

You may also download a PDF version of this report.

Annual Drinking Water Quality Report

The City of Tybee Island

2008

We're pleased to present to you this year's Annual Drinking Water Quality Report. This report is designed to inform you about the quality water and services we deliver to you every day. Our constant goal is to provide you with a safe and dependable supply of drinking water. We want you to understand the efforts we make to continually improve the water treatment process and protect our water resources. We are committed to ensuring the quality of your water. Our wells draw groundwater from the Upper Floridan Aquifer.

We’re pleased to report that our drinking water is safe and meets federal and state requirements.

If you have any questions about this report or concerning your water utility, please contact George Reese at (912) 786-4573 . We want our valued customers to be informed about their water utility. If you want to learn more, please attend any of our regularly scheduled Town Council meetings. They are held on the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 7:00 P.M. at the Tybee Island City Hall. This report will not be mailed to consumers but copies may be obtained from City Hall.

The Tybee Island Water Department routinely monitors for constituents in your drinking water according to Federal and State laws. The Test Results table shows the monitoring results for the period of January 1^st to December 31^st, 2008 or as shown in the table. The sources of drinking water (both tap and bottled water) include rivers, lakes, streams, ponds, reservoirs, springs, and wells. As water travels over the surface of the land or through the ground, it dissolves naturally-occurring minerals and, in some cases, radioactive material, and can pick up substances resulting from the presence of animals or from human activity.

Contaminants that may be present in source water include the following:

t Microbial contaminants, such as viruses and bacteria that may come from sewage treatment plants, septic systems, agricultural livestock operations, and wildlife.

t Inorganic contaminants such as salts and metals, which can be naturally-occurring or result from urban storm runoff, industrial or domestic wastewater discharges, oil and gas production, mining, or farming.

t Pesticides and herbicides, which may come from a variety of sources such as agriculture, urban stormwater runoff, and residential uses.

t Organic chemical contaminants, including synthetic and volatile organic chemicals, which are by-products of industrial processes and petroleum production, and can also come from gas stations, urban stormwater runoff, and septic systems.

t Radioactive contaminants, which can be naturally-occurring or be the result of oil and gas production and mining activities.

In order to ensure that tap water is safe to drink, EPA prescribes regulations that limit the amount of certain contaminants in water provided by public water systems. Food and Drug Administration regulations establish limits for contaminants in bottled water which must provide the same protection for public health.

The Test Results table lists the contaminants which were detected and the level at which the detection occurred. For brevity, we have only listed the contaminants which were detected within the past year’s tests or the latest test for the contaminant. In this table you will find many terms and abbreviations you might not be familiar with. To help you better understand these terms we've provided the following definitions:

Parts per million (ppm) or Milligrams per liter (mg/l) - one part per million corresponds to one minute in two years or a single penny in $10,000.

Parts per billion (ppb) or Micrograms per liter (µg/l) - one part per billion corresponds to one minute in 2,000 years, or a single penny in $10,000,000.

Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL): “The highest level of a contaminant that is allowed in drinking water. MCLs are set as close to the MCLGs as feasible using the best available treatment technology.

Maximum Contaminant Level Goal (MCLG): “The level of a contaminant in drinking water below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MCLGs allow for a margin of safety.”

Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level (MRDL): “The highest level of a disinfectant allowed in drinking water. There is convincing evidence that addition of a disinfectant is necessary for control of microbiological contaminants.”

Maximum Residual Disinfectant Level Goal (MRDLG): “The level of a drinking water disinfectant below which there is no known or expected risk to health. MRDLGs do not reflect the benefits of the use of disinfectants to control microbial contaminants.”

Action Level (AL) - the concentration of a contaminant which, if exceeded, triggers treatment or other requirements which a water system must follow.

MNR - Monitoring not required, but recommended.

As you can see by the table, our system had no violations. We’re proud that your drinking water meets or exceeds all Federal and State requirements. We have learned through our monitoring and testing that some constituents have been detected. The EPA has determined that your water IS SAFE at these levels. Drinking water, including bottled water, may reasonably be expected to contain at least small amounts of some contaminants. The presence of contaminants does not necessarily indicate that water poses a health risk. More information about contaminants and potential health effects can be obtained by calling the EPA’s Safe Drinking Water Hotline (1-800-426-4791).

MCL’s are set at very stringent levels. To understand the possible health effects described for many regulated constituents, a person would have to drink 2 liters of water every day at the MCL level for a lifetime to have a one-in-a-million chance of having the described health effect.

Some people may be more vulnerable to contaminants in drinking water than the general population. Immuno-compromised persons such as persons with cancer undergoing chemotherapy, persons who have undergone organ transplants, people with HIV/AIDS or other immune system disorders, some elderly, and infants can be particularly at risk from infections. These people should seek advice about drinking water from their health care providers. EPA/CDC guidelines on appropriate means to lessen the risk of infection by Cryptosporidium and other microbiological contaminants are available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline (800-426-4791).

If present, elevated levels of lead can cause serious health problem, especially for pregnant women and young children. Lead in drinking water is primarily from materials and components associated with service lines and home plumbing.

Tybee Island Water System is responsible for providing high quality drinking water, but cannot control the variety of materials used in plumbing components. When your water has been sitting for several hours, you can minimize the potential for lead exposure by flushing your tap for 30 seconds to 2 minutes before using water for drinking or cooking. If you are concerned about lead in your water, you may wish to have your water tested. Information on lead in drinking water, test methods, and steps you can take to minimize exposure is available from the Safe Drinking Water Hotline or at http://www.epa.gov/safewater/lead.

Please call our office if you have questions.

We at the Tybee Island Water Department work around the clock to provide top quality water to every tap. We ask that all our customers help us protect our water sources, which are the heart of our community, our way of life and our children’s future.

Georgia Source Water Assessment Program is currently pending of this area. This report will be made available to the public once completed by the GA Environmental Protection Division (EPD).

EPD has determined that the concentration of certain water quality monitoring parameters does not change frequently within our system therefore, some of the data represented in this report are greater than one year old.

Please call our office if you have questions.

Test Results

Parameter

MCL

MCLG

Tybee Island Water System

Range of Detections

Sample Date

Violation

Typical Source of Contamination

Lead & Copper

Parameter

MCLG

Tybee Island Water System

# of sites above the AL

Sample Date

Violation

Typical Source of Contamination

Lead (ppb)

2.7

0 out of 10 sites sampled

7/19/07

Corrosion of household plumbing systems, erosion of natural deposits

Copper (ppm)

1.3

0.120

0 out of 10 sites sampled

7/13/07

Corrosion of household plumbing systems; erosion of natural deposits; leaching from wood preservatives