# Fix a Leak Week: a leak check for older pipes > Fix a Leak Week leak check for older pipes: the EPA meter and toilet tests, plus where galvanized, copper and buried service lines hide leaks in older homes. URL: https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/blog/fix-a-leak-week/ Dates and Deadlines Every March, EPA's WaterSense program runs Fix a Leak Week. The standard checks find dripping faucets and running toilets; this one adds the leaks that older supply pipe and buried service lines tend to hide. Last Updated: October 30, 2026 Fix a Leak Week is an annual campaign from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s WaterSense program, held each March, that asks households to find and fix leaks. Its standard checks catch dripping faucets and running toilets. This leak check for older pipes adds the places where aging supply pipe and buried service lines hide water you cannot see. [Circle City Repipe](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/) finds and repairs leaks and replaces old supply piping across Indianapolis and nearby communities, with the work carried out by licensed and insured contractors. The checks below need nothing more than a look at the meter, a few drops of food coloring and a walk through the basement. ## Why the campaign exists EPA’s [Fix a Leak Week page](https://www.epa.gov/watersense/fix-leak-week) puts the scale plainly. The average household’s leaks can account for more than 9,300 gallons of water wasted every year, and nine percent of homes have leaks that waste 50 gallons or more per day. A faucet dripping once a second wastes more than 3,000 gallons a year. Most of that comes from fixtures, which is where the campaign starts. Dates move a little from year to year, so check the WaterSense site for the current week. ## The meter test The water meter is the most reliable leak detector a house has, because it counts every gallon that passes it whether you can see the water or not. EPA’s method is simple: read the meter before and after a two-hour period when no water is being used. If the reading changed, something is leaking. Many meters also have a small leak indicator, a triangle or dial that turns with very low flow. Before you rely on the result, know where your meter is. Citizens Energy Group’s standards put meters one inch and smaller in an outside pit near the right-of-way, and an inside meter moves to a pit when the service line is replaced, but some older houses still have the meter in the basement. The position decides what the test can see, which matters for the buried line described below. Read an outside meter only if the lid comes off easily and safely; a utility bill that compares months also shows a change in use. ## The toilet dye test EPA’s second check is for toilets, which can leak into the bowl silently for months. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank and wait without flushing. If color shows up in the bowl within ten minutes, the flapper is letting water through. Flush afterward so the dye does not stain the tank. A worn flapper is a cheap part and one of the few leak repairs that is a reasonable do-it-yourself job. ## Where older pipes hide leaks Fixture leaks are visible or close to it. The leaks that make old houses expensive are in the pipe, and they follow the material: - **Galvanized steel** rusts from the inside, and the threads at each joint are the thinnest point. Look for rust staining, damp spots or white and orange crust at threaded fittings in the basement ceiling or crawlspace. - **Copper** can develop pinhole leaks, small enough to drip slowly inside a wall for weeks before a stain appears. Green or blue spots on the outside of the pipe are worth noting. The [copper pinhole leaks guide](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/copper-pinhole-leaks/) explains the possible causes. - **Polybutylene**, a gray plastic used in some houses from the late 1970s into the 1990s, tends to fail at its fittings. The [polybutylene pipe replacement page](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/polybutylene-pipe-replacement/) shows what it looks like. - **Slab and under-floor lines** can leak with no visible sign beyond a warm spot on the floor, the sound of running water or a meter that never stops. The [slab leak repair page](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/slab-leak-repair/) covers what happens next. If you are not sure which pipe you have, the [guide to identifying pipe material](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/how-to-identify-pipe-material/) walks through each one. ## The buried service line In Citizens Energy Group territory the property owner owns the full length of the service line, the buried pipe from the main to the house. A leak in the right-of-way is repaired by Citizens; a leak on the owner’s side, outside the right-of-way, is the owner’s to repair through a licensed and bonded plumber. That is where the meter’s position matters. With an outside pit, the buried line to the house is past the meter, so a leak in it shows up in the two-hour test. With an inside meter, the buried line comes before the meter, so a leak there never moves the dial. Signs to watch for instead are a soft or unusually green strip of lawn along the line’s route in a dry spell, or water at the street that does not dry up. The [water line replacement page](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/water-line-replacement/) covers the repair, and the [water leak repair page](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/water-leak-repair/) covers fixing one leak inside the house. ## When one leak is a pattern One leak at an old joint is a repair. A second and third in the same galvanized or copper system point to the pipe itself. That is when comparing a run of repairs with a [partial](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/partial-repiping/) or [whole-house repipe](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/whole-house-repiping/) makes sense, and the [repipe vs repair guide](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/repipe-vs-repair/) lays out how to weigh it. Whatever the check turns up, [water leak detection](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/water-leak-detection/) is the place to start when the meter says there is a leak and the house will not show you where. FAQ ## Questions - Q01 My meter moved during the two-hour test but I can't find any water. What now? First rule out the toilets with a dye test and check the water heater relief valve's discharge pipe, softener and any irrigation. If all of them are dry, the leak is likely hidden: inside a wall, under a slab or in the buried line between the meter and the house. That is the point for leak detection with acoustic or thermal tools rather than opening walls on a guess. - Q02 Does a meter test catch a leak in the buried pipe to my house? It depends on where the meter is. When the meter sits in an outside pit near the street, the buried line from the pit to the house is downstream of it, so a leak there shows on the meter. When the meter is inside the basement, the buried line comes before it, and a leak in that stretch will not show on the meter at all. - Q03 How often should I check an older house for leaks? Once a year is a sensible routine, and Fix a Leak Week each March is an easy reminder. Check again after any hard freeze, after work on the plumbing, and whenever a water bill jumps without a change in how the house uses water. ## Want this answered for your house? Read ## Keep reading - Learn [What causes pinhole leaks in copper pipes?](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/copper-pinhole-leaks/)There is no single cause of copper pinholes, and anyone who names one without looking at the pipe is guessing. This guide goes through each mechanism, the clues that point to it, what a temporary fix can and can't do, and when the pattern says repipe. - Seasonal [Freezing pipes in an Indianapolis winter: where they freeze and why they burst](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/blog/freezing-pipes-indianapolis-winter/)A pre-winter look at the pipes most likely to freeze in an Indianapolis house, the mechanism that actually splits them, and what changes when a repipe moves the lines. - Learn [How to identify lead pipes and the other pipe in your house](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/how-to-identify-pipe-material/)A step-by-step check you can do at the water meter with a coin and a magnet, the way Citizens Energy Group and the EPA describe it, then how to read the rest of the pipe in the house and what each material changes. - Learn [Why am I getting brown water from my faucet?](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/guide/brown-water-from-faucet/)Brown or rust-colored water has three usual sources: the street, the water heater and the pipe in your walls. A few checks at the tap sort out which one, and only one of them is a repiping question. - News [The lead service line replacement rule: what EPA's ten-year deadline means for Indianapolis homes](https://circlecityrepipeindy.com/blog/lead-service-line-replacement-rule/)EPA's Lead and Copper Rule Improvements set a ten-year deadline for replacing lead service lines. Here is what the rule requires of water systems, what it does not cover inside the house, and how Citizens and Speedway fit in.