Is your toilet running? Then you’d better go catch it! It’s a dumb joke, but a running toilet is actually no laughing matter — a toilet that is running, even when no one flushed it recently, could be wasting 200 gallons of water or more every day!

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reports that leaking toilets and faucets can account for more than 10,000 gallons of water loss in an average home each year — the amount of water it takes to wash 270 loads of laundry, which translates to higher water bills for many homeowners.

The EPA WaterSense program’s “Fix a Leak Week” encourages Americans to help put a stop to the more than 1 trillion gallons of water wasted from household leaks nationwide every year. Check out the many useful resources available through this program, including tips for fixing leaks around your home and videos on how to detect household leaks.

If you’ve already determined you have leaks and these step-by-step solutions aren’t enough to stop them, it might be time to replace your leaking fixtures. Look for the WaterSense logo when considering a new toilet, faucet, or showerhead—you will increase your home’s water efficiency. See a complete list of WaterSense labeled products from the EPA.

As an EPA WaterSense partner, Kane County government is promoting “Fix a Leak Week” starting on March 14, 2016. The Kane County Division of Environmental & Water Resources will offer FREE toilet leak detection dye tabs to residents March 14th-18th, as supplies last. The tablets will be available during regular office hours at the front desk at several Kane County buildings:

• Kane County Government Center, Building A, 719 S. Batavia Ave. in Geneva, at the Environmental & Water Resources Division on the first floor or the Development Department on the fourth floor.
• Kane County Health Department, 1240 N. Highland Ave. in Aurora or 1750 Grandstand Place in Elgin.

WaterSense, a partnership program sponsored by EPA, seeks to protect the future of our nation’s water supply by offering people a simple way to use less water with water-efficient products, new homes, and services. Since the program’s inception in 2006, WaterSense has helped consumers save hundreds of billions of gallons of water and billions in water and energy bills.

SOURCE: Kane County Division of Environmental and Water Resources