Various municipal departments have been acting in response to the City Council’s call for a communitywide voluntary 20 percent reduction in water consumption.

City employees are developing methods by which the city itself will address the current drought, which the Council will see later this month.

Meanwhile, Benicia City Manager Brad Kilger, in an April 21 report, has offered tips that may help residents determine whether leaks are leading to wasted water.

“Silent leaks allow water and your money to go down the drain,” Kilger wrote.

He and representatives of the Public Works Department suggested a property owner turn off all the water in the building and the yard, then check the water meter, usually under a metal lid in the sidewalk in front of the building.

To do so, he wrote, lift the metal box’s cover, then lift the cover on top of the meter’s dial. “If the little black triangle on the meter is moving and all the water is turned off, you have a leak,” Kilger wrote.

The next task, he wrote, is to determine whether the leak is inside or outside. To do so, a property owner can shut off the main water valve to the inside of the building, then check the meter again.

If the black triangle doesn’t move, then the leak is inside the building. But if it is still moving, the leak is outside the building.

Kilger wrote that leaks can come from faucets, toilets, broken water pipes in the concrete foundation or in irrigation systems.

Repairing those leaks is one way to save water, he noted. Other tips are available through the website h2ouse.org, part of the Smart from the Start California water conservation program that provides tools, advice and templates to reduce water consumption.

Among other tips on that site, homeowners are urged to replace old toilets because they’re the largest water user inside a house. Those installed before 1992 aren’t as efficient as newer models.

In addition, washers rated at 9.5 or lower save 35 to 50 percent in water and 50 percent in energy when compared to less efficient models.

Xeriscaping, natural landscapes, wild landscapes and other native, drought-resistant plantings use less water than lawns, and residents whose yard waterers aren’t timed automatically should set a manual timer to remind them to shut off their water.

A chart developed by the Public Works Department shows that at the beginning of 2014, Benicians were using more water than they had in 2012 and 2013. But by February and in most of March, residents and companies had reduced consumption to 2012 levels, which for much of the year was lower than water use in 2013.

Both 2014 and 2012 saw a gradual upswing from the late January-early February low, and neither year is as low as the city’s goal of reducing water consumption by 20 percent.

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