The
Water Department operates under the direction of the Public Works
Director. The City of Belton purchases its water from the Kansas
City Water Department.
The water
department operates and maintains the City's water reservoirs,
pump stations, and water mains to deliver drinkable water to customers.
Billing:
The Finance Department is responsible for billing customers for
their consumption and processing payments. Automatic withdrawl
of your water and sewer bill payment directly from your bank account
is now available. Deposits
required for new service connections.
Account-Holder
Responsibilities: It is the account holder's responsibility
to provide continual access to the water meter. If a Meter Reader
encounters an obstruction to the meter, a letter will be sent
to the account holder requesting that the obstruction be removed.
Obstructions will often result in the account holder receiving
an estimated bill. Failure to remove an obstruction may result
in discontinuation of service.
City Responsibilities:
City responsibilities are limited to those things it controls,
owns or maintains. Since the City does not control, own or maintain
the elements of the customer's home/business plumbing system it
cannot be held responsible for failures to this system.
Problems:
Water service related problems betweeen the water meter and
the customer's home/business or within the customer's home/business,
is the customer's responsibility.
Line Locates:
Contact the water maintenance department for a water line
locate at 816-322-1885 between the hours of 8:00 a.m. to 5:00
p.m.
After
Hours Emergency: Contact Police Dispatch at 816-331-1500.
Backflow
Prevention Assembly Test Data and Maintenance Report
(pdf file)
Backflow
Prevention FAQ
BACKFLOW
PREVENTION STANDARDS (pdf file)
WATER
CONSERVATION-click here for more information
FROZEN
WATER PIPE PRECAUTIONS-click here for more information
Fast Facts
Miles of Water Main - 122.78
Tips
for Saving Water
AWWA recommends
the following steps to help conserve water:
Don't over
water your lawn. Only water every three to five days in the summer
and 10 to 14 days in the winter.
To prevent water loss from evaporation, don't water your lawn
during the hottest part of the day or when it is windy.
Only run
the dishwasher and clothes washer when they are fully loaded.
Defrost frozen
food in the refrigerator or in the microwave instead of running
water over it.
When washing
dishes by hand, use two basins - one for washing and one for rinsing
rather than let the water run.
Use a broom,
rather than a hose, to clean sidewalks and driveways.
If you have
a swimming pool, get a cover. You'll cut the loss of water by
evaporation by 90 percent.
Repair dripping
faucets and leaky toilets. Dripping faucets can waste about 2,000
gallons of water each year.
Leaky toilets
can waste as much as 200 gallons each day.
Other tips
on how to become water efficient can be found at: www.h2ouse.org
Water
Use Statistics
Consumption and Conservation
Americans drink more than 1 billion glasses of tap water per day.
On average, 50 to 70 percent of home water is used outdoors for
watering lawns and gardens.
Daily indoor per capita water use in the typical single family
home with no water-conserving fixtures is 74 gallons.
Here is how
it breaks down:
| Use |
Gallons
per Capita |
Percentage
of Total Daily Use |
| Showers |
12.6 |
17.3% |
| Clothes
Washers |
15.1 |
20.9% |
| Dishwashers |
1.0 |
1.3% |
| Toilets |
20.1 |
27.7% |
| Baths |
1.2 |
2.1% |
| Leaks |
10.0 |
13.8% |
| Faucets |
11.1 |
15.3% |
| Other
Domestic Uses |
1.5 |
2.1% |
By installing
more efficient water fixtures and regularly checking for leaks,
households can reduce daily per capita water use by about 30%
to about 51.9 gallons per day.
Here's how
it breaks down for households using conservation measures:
| Use |
Gallons
per Capita |
Percentage
of Total Daily Use |
| Showers |
10.0 |
20.1% |
| Clothes
Washers |
10.6 |
21.4% |
| Dishwashers |
1.0 |
2.0% |
| Toilets |
9.6 |
19.3% |
| Baths |
1.2 |
2.4% |
| Leaks |
5.0 |
10.1% |
| Faucets |
10.8 |
21.9% |
| Other
Domestic Uses |
1.5 |
3.1% |
(1999 Residential
Water Use Summary, American Water Works Association)
If all U.S. households installed water-saving features, water
use would decrease by 30 percent, saving an estimated 5.4 billion
gallons per day. This would result in dollar-volume savings of
$11.3 million per day or more than $4 billion per year.
Water-conserving
fixtures installed in U.S. households in 1998 alone save 44 million
gallons of water every day, resulting in total dollar-value savings
of more than $33.6 million per year.
Average household
water use annually: 127,400 gallons
Average daily
household water use : 350 gallons
Approximately
339,000 million gallons per day (mgd) of freshwater (about one
quarter of the national renewable supply) was withdrawn during
1990 for use by the nation's homes, farms, and industries, and
about 220 billion gallons per day was returned to streams after
use. The withdrawals during 1990 were about 7 percent less than
during 1980, the maximum year reported, and about the same as
during 1985. Some reasons for the decline are because of active
conservation programs, new technologies requiring less water,
higher costs to obtain water, and the enhanced awareness by the
general public to water resources. (USGS)
In 1990,
the State of California received 3,740 mgd; Texas 2,310; Florida
1,250; New York 1,890. In comparison, The Virgin Islands received
1.0 mgd; Vermont 27; Alaska 30. (USGS)
More Water
Conservation Tips
INSIDE
1. Dishwasher
and Washer: Run only full loads. When replacing, look for machines
that use less water and are more energy efficient.
2. Drinking:
Keep a bottle of water in the refrigerator and use ice instead
of running the tap until the water is cold.
3. Toilet:
Add food coloring to the water tank. If the color appears in the
bowl without flushing, there is a leak. Replace the defective
parts.
4. Shower:
Install water saving shower heads. Turn the water off while soaping
or shampooing.
5. Bathing:
An average bathtub holds 50 gallons of water. Conserve water by
only partially filling the tub.
6. Shaving:
Use a partially filled sink or short blast of water to rinse your
razor.
7. Pipes:
Wrap hot water pipes with insulation to avoid waiting for hot
water.
8. Faucets:
Repair leaks and install a low-flow aerator.
9. Brushing
teeth: Don't run water while brushing. Fill a glass for rinsing.
OUTSIDE
1. Sprinklers:
Don't water the pavement! Position sprinklers so that lawn and
garden receive all of the water.
2. Driveways:
Use a broom instead of a water hose to clear debris from patios,
sidewalks, and driveways.
3. Lawn Care:
Deep soak weekly in the morning or evening when the least evaporation
occurs. Also aerate your lawn on a regular basis.
4. Landscaping:
Drought tolerant plants need less water. Mulch your garden to
slow evaporation.
5. Mowing:
Longer grass means less evaporation. Set your mower a notch or
two higher in hot dry weather.
6. Car Washing:
Use a bucket to wash your vehicle and keep a nozzle on the save
water.
7. Pool Care:
Use a pool cover to keep the water clean and reduce the rate of
evaporation. Recycle water for use on the lawn or garden.
8. Valves
and Hoses: Regularly check pipes, hoses, valves, and faucets for
leaks.
FROZEN
WATER PIPE PRECAUTIONS
Every winter,
many homeowners face the expense and inconvenience of frozen water
pipes. But, you can cross that off you list of winter worries
by taking a few precautions.
Disconnect
and drain outdoor hoses. Detaching the hose allows water to drain
from the pipe. Otherwise, a single hard, overnight freeze can
burst either the faucet or the pipe it is connected to.
Insulate
pipes or faucets in unheated areas. If you have pipelines in an
unheated garage, cold crawl space under the house, wrap the water
pipes before temperatures plummet. Hardware or building supply
stores will have good pipe wrapping materials available.
Seal off
access doors, air vents, and cracks. Repair broken basement windows.
Winter winds whistling through overlooked openings can quickly
freeze exposed water pipes. But don't plug air vents your furnace
or water heater needs for good combustion.
Find the
master shutoff. It may be near the water heater or the washing
machine. More likely it's where the water line comes into your
house from the street. If a pipe bursts anywhere in the house-kitchen,
bath, basement or crawl space-this valve turns it off. Find it
now and paint it a bright color or hang a tag on it. Be sure everyone
in the family knows where it is and what it does.
Allow steady
water flow. In some places you're advised to leave a steady drip
or pencil-led-thin stream of water flowing from a bathroom faucet
during the worst of a cold spell.
WHAT IF IT'S
TOO LATE? What if you wake up one day to find the pipes are frozen
anyway? During an extreme extended cold spell, it could happen
despite precautions.
Do you have
the plumber's telephone number handy? Write it down now before
you need it in an emergency.
If you think
you know where the freeze-up occurred and want to try thawing
it yourself, not under any circumstances use a torch with an open
flame! The whole house could catch fire. Also, overheating a single
spot can burst the pipe. Heating a soldered joint could allow
it to leak or come completely apart.
The easiest
tool is probably a hair dryer with a low heat setting. Wave the
warm air back and forth along the pipe, not on one spot. If you
don't have a hair dryer, you can wrap the frozen section with
rags or towels and pour hot water over them. It's messy, but it
works.
Be careful
because the pipe may already be broken. It's not leaking because
the water is frozen. But when you thaw it out, water could come
gushing out. Be ready to run for the master shutoff valve if necessary.
The main
thing is to take precautions before winter sets in:
SOURCE: AMERICAN WATER WORKS ASSOCIATION
