Image

(Chicago Tribune photo)

I’ve talked about wasted water before but here is a dramatic result of a water leak that got out of hand. Chicago pumps 1 Billion gallons of water out of Lake Michigan every day. 25% of that, 250 million gallons is lost every day to leaks. Yesterday there was a leak under the street on the near south side and the leaking water had eroded the ground under the street so much that the hole grew to 40 feet across in no time. The hole enveloped 2 unoccupied cars and a third that tried to drive around it, as captured in this dramatic video. On a smaller scale water leaks in homes all across Chicago also contribute to wasted water. If you are a homeowner it makes sense to have a qualified, licensed plumbing contractor inspect all of your plumbing annually. The money that you could save from the inspection could easily pay for the cost.