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Willowood-CS040810 MEMORANDUM FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGINEERING To: Clay Phillips, Deputy City Manager From: Ken Griffin, P.E., Director of Engineering/Public Works Date: August 10, 2004 RE: Woodhurst Drive / water usage This memo will attempt to provide as much insight into the on-going situation as possible. I have tried to approach the issue from a logical standpoint to determine whether or not there is water being wasted along Woodhurst Drive. My first involvement in this situation was June 7, 2004 when an e-mail was forwarded to me concerning the waste of water along Woodhurst Dr. Based on that e-mail, I obtained water records for several houses along Woodhurst Dr., along with my own house as a reference point. I then compared the 16 month billing average for those addresses. The low was an average of 9,488 gallons per month and the high was 19,594 gallons per month. Because the high water user was approximately double that of the other houses I reviewed, I sent a letter on June 11, 2004 to the resident at 315 Woodhurst Dr. indicating that he may have a leak in his irrigation or plumbing because of the disparity of water usage at his house verses several of his neighbors. I spoke with Mr. Fulton, of 323 Woodhurst Dr., on June 15, 2004 concerning water usage in the neighborhood. The property owner at 315 Woodhurst e-mailed me June 16, 2004 concerning my letter of June 11, 2004 and his water usage. I e-mailed him back with the particulars concerning his water usage as compared to several of his neighbors. He stated in his e-mail that he had looked at his irrigation system and that there were several homes west of him on Woodhurst that watered to the point where water flowed in the gutter. Mr. Fulton e-mailed me on June 16, 2004 to tell me that the property owner at 315 Woodhurst has adjusted his watering habits such that it is not apparent when we inspect the area that he has been watering excessively. Mr. Fulton e-mailed me again on June 17, 2004 alerting me that the property owner at 315 Woodhurst is watering at off-times and is watering several times a day. On June 25, 2004 I spoke with Mr. Fulton again concerning the water usage and I stated to him that we had contacted the property owner and the property owner stated his irrigation system had been looked at and no leaks were noted. At that point I considered the issue closed. The latest e-mail of August 9, 2004 obviously leads me to believe that this matter is still an ongoing issue. In addition to the above items, in a memo to you on June 7, 2004 Glenn Hollowell stated that he had spoken to Mr. Fulton several times concerning this issue. Also, we inspected the system on May 6, 2004 and found no leak. We also inspected the system on May 21, 2004, and turned off the double check. Based on the e-mails around the first week of June 2004 an additional work order was "CITY OF COPPELL ENGINEERING - EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN" generated on June 7, 2004 to look at the ponding of water in the street. We have since added that location to our Uretek list. We have also created a work order in C2. The following hopefully will methodically explain my approach to this issue. Based on information from Planning, the average household in the City of Coppell is 2.94 persons. Based on our water usage during the last budget year of 3,065,599,000 gallons and our population of 39,500, the City of Coppell  has a per capita water use of 212 GPCD (3,065,599,000 365 39,500 = 212). If our per capita water use in the City of Coppell is approximately 212 GPCD and each household in Coppell is 2.94 persons, then you would expect the average monthly water use in Coppell to be approximately 18,698 gal per residential connection (2.94 x 212 x 30=18698). Once I had this number, I verified with Chad Beach that our actual per residential connection water use last year was 14,662 gallons per month. If you calibrate the expected usage of 18,698 verses the actual  usage of 14,662, you determine that the actual usage is 78% of the expected usage (14,662 18698 = 78%). Once I had this information, I then performed a comparison of our per capita water use with other entities generally around us. The following represents the per capita water use: City of Fort Worth 157 Tarrant County 185 Denton County 190 Texas state wide average 191 Dallas County 196 City of Irving 208 City of Coppell 212 Collin County 232 City of Dallas 250 Mr. Fulton’s last e-mail states that there are 6 people living in the house at 315 Woodhurst Drive. With a household of 6 people and a water use of 212 GPCD, you arrive at an expected usage of 38,160 gallons per month (6 x 212 x 30 =38,160). However, the actual per household usage was appropriately 78% of the expected usage. Therefore, using 78% of the expected usage would yield an actual usage somewhere in the neighborhood of 29,765 gallons per month. It’s my opinion that a household with 6 occupants would not be considered wasteful in water usage until the usage on average was over 30,000 gallons per month. I am not taking the position that the resident at 315 Woodhurst Dr. doesn’t water frequently. It is just my opinion that an average usage of 20,815 gallons for a household with 6 occupants does appear to be excessive based on the water usage averages discussed above. I would be happy to discuss this with you at your convenience, but at this point I am unsure what direction to take from here. "CITY OF COPPELL ENGINEERING - EXCELLENCE BY DESIGN"