Water Conservation Tips

A few dollars and a few hours can save your household thousands of gallons of water a year. Explore these videos and links to find conservation tools you can use around your house.

Drop The Bottle: Drink Tap Water

Turning ON the TAP. Tap water is healthier for you in so many ways, AND Newton County water comes from one of the cleanest sources in the state, the Alcovy River, SO DRINK UP! It has fluoride to make your teeth strong. Tap water is held to a higher safety standard than bottled water. Plus, though they can be recycled, empty water bottles often end up in landfill – 2 million tons in 2005, alone. And tap water is much, much cheaper. Save your teeth, your health, your environment, and your cash – drink tap…

Fix Your Toilet: Quick How To…

If you suspect your toilet of a leak contact Newton Water & Sewerage Authority for a water test kit. If you found out your toilet is leaking, WATCH THIS VIDEO, and then follow the steps below! Leaking Flapper This happens when water leaks through the hole at the bottom center of the tank under the flapper because the flapper does not seat properly. There are two possible culprits for this: the flapper chain or the flapper itself. The flapper chain connects the flush handle arm to the flapper. Sometimes the chain gets twisted, snagged, or caught on the handle arm, which shortens the chain’s length, holding up the flapper so it can’t seat fully. The ideal chain length has some slack when the handle arm is at rest and the flapper is fully seated. Make sure the flapper chain is untangled. Flush the toilet a few times to assure the chain does not re-tangle and the flapper seats properly. Later, replace the old chain with a new one. Follow these instructions to repair or replace the flapper: Step 1 – Test the Flapper With tank lid off, handle at rest, and toilet seat up, push down the flapper. If the water stops running into the bowl, the flapper needs to be repaired or replaced. Step 2 – Test the Chain and Hinges Make sure the chain end is fastened securely to the flapper loop, so the flush handle operates the flapper correctly. Make sure the flapper hinges are attached securely onto their posts (bottom of overflow tube), so the flapper floats up and down freely. If the flapper still does not seat…

Read Your Meter:

Water meters can be pretty confusing, but after a little bit of reading it should be as easy possible! Take a quick look and learn something new! If you already know about these take a refresher coarse. LOCATING YOUR METER BOX • For Residential Customers: In most cases, the water meter is located at the front of the property near the street under ground. • For Commercial Customers: In most cases, the water meter is located at the front of the property, or could be located in the back or side of property under ground. In some cases depending on the size of the commercial property, the meter will be locked under ground in a large vault. In these cases, do not attempt to obtain a reading. Please contact NCWSA (770-385-3940) to obtain a reading of the meter. • When looking at the water meter, locate the BLACK numbers on the LEFT side of the meter dial with the WHITE background. These numbers count the number of gallons of water that have passed through your meter. DETERMINING YOUR WATER USAGE: Use the following example to help read your meter: • Select a day to take an initial water meter reading. • Write down the numbers you see on the meter odometer. (ex. 0260000) • After a period of time has passed (such as a day or week), read your meter again. (ex. new reading of 0263000) • Subtract your first reading from the second reading. This is your water usage for that period. (ex. 0263000—0260000 = 3000) • The 3000 figure indicates that 3,000 gallons of water have been used…

Backflow – What is a Potential Hazard?

What is considered a potential hazard? ANY possibility of pollutants, contaminants, and system or plumbing hazards. For example fire protection systems, irrigation systems, gasoline refineries and stations, restaurants, hospitals, and manufacturers. Just to name a few. To keep your drinking water safe, the Newton County Water & Sewerage Authority diligently checks the plans of each new business for compliance with cross connection/backflow requirements. We take pride in the water we provide and will continue to protect it and our citizens. All residential meters come installed with an AWWA approved backflow prevention device. Now that you have some background, you may ask…What’s the big deal? Well, the big deal is that backflows due to cross connections can cause sickness and death. Even in your own home, you can unwittingly create a cross connection: Putting the garden hose in a swimming pool to fill it. Putting the garden hose in a pet’s water bucket to fill it, or the fish tank. Putting the garden hose down the drain to flush out debris when it’s backed up. Connecting your garden hose to a plant fertilizer or bug spray unit. Over half of the nation’s cross connections involve unprotected garden hoses. In Kansas, a man died from drinking out of his garden hose. He had been spraying the yard with poison to get rid of bugs and had connected his garden hose to the spraying device. Unknown to him, during the spraying, a drop in pressure occurred in the main water system causing the poisoned water to backflow into the hose. Enough to kill him when he took a drink from…