Post Falls Man Paying For Water Leak

POST FALLS — If you have an automatic sprinkler system in your yard, you probably blew it out before the cold weather arrived. Not one Post Falls man, and now he’s fighting a $1,000 water bill.

Patrick Gray moved into a two story house last September. He hasn’t had any complaints, except for one: his sprinkler system.

“I’m thinking there’s a default in the meter and not the water,” Gray said.

The Ross Point Water District came out to his house last month when they noticed a huge overage on his meter. Crews shut off the valve, but Patrick was left with this bill

“I almost had a heart attack. ‘What? 971 dollars!?” Gray exclaimed.

Underneath the snow, Patrick has a couple of water sprinklers that were apparently leaking. The Ross Point Water District said he used 1,315,000 gallons of water. That’s enough to fill two Olymypic size pools and then some.

Patrick is wondering where all that water went

“I mean, a million gallons of water? This church would be affected, everywhere around us,” Gray said.

“(The water) goes in the ground back in the aquifier,” Water Operator Chris Triebwasser said.

Which is why Triebwasser, a Water Operator for Ross Point Water District, says Patrick never saw a leak, and ever noticed a problem.

“If a water pipe breaks there’s a decrease of pressure in your home,” Gray said.

Ross Point Water District says the problem could’ve easily been avoided, if he had blown out his sprinkler system. That would have stopped the water from freezing and thawing, and cracking the pipes.

“Winterize your irrigation system,” Triebwasser said.

Patrick, however, still plans to appeal his case before the water board, hoping they’ll listen and understand his honest mistake.