Most of the high water bill calls we get in Abilene come in September. The August statement lands, it's the biggest one of the year, and it's hard to tell how much was the sprinklers and how much was water going somewhere it shouldn't. Sometimes it's just summer. Sometimes a leak has been running around the clock since June.
The short answer: if your bill jumped and your habits didn't, check the toilets first, then the sprinkler system, then pull up your hourly usage in the City of Abilene's customer portal and look at 2 a.m. If water is moving while the whole house is asleep, something is leaking — and every gallon of it is billed at the most expensive rate on your statement.
Why a leak costs more than the water it wastes
Abilene bills residential water in tiers. As of November 2025, the first 6,000 gallons run $4.50 per thousand, gallons 7,000 through 15,000 run $7.70, and everything over 15,000 runs $10.80. A leak doesn't replace your normal use; it stacks on top of it, so every gallon a bad flapper adds lands in your highest tier. Push a household past 15,000 gallons and you're paying more than double the base rate for water nobody used.
The sewer side stacks too. Residential sewer is figured off the same meter reading, up to 10,000 gallons a month, so a leak in the yard that never touches a drain still gets billed as sewer until you hit that cap. The EPA's WaterSense program puts the average household's leaks at more than 9,300 gallons a year and says fixing the easy ones trims about 10 percent off a water bill. In a tiered town, often more.
Let the city's smart meter do the first hour of work
Abilene has replaced just about every water meter in town with a smart meter that reports to the city's customer portal every hour. So instead of standing at the curb watching a dial, log in to the city's utility billing portal, open the Consumption History tab, and look at the overnight hours.
A house with no leak sits at zero for most of the night. A softener regenerating at 2 a.m. or an ice maker shows up as a blip and drops back. A leak shows up as a floor that never reaches zero — and scrolling back a few weeks usually shows you the exact day it started.
While you're in there, click Manage Alerts and turn on the leak alert. The city's system watches for abnormal usage over a three-day window and will text, call, or email you. It's free, it takes five minutes, and it's the closest thing to a smoke detector your plumbing will ever get. No portal? The EPA's version still works: use no water for two hours, and if the meter reading changed at all, you've got a leak.
Where a hidden water leak usually hides
In rough order of how often we find them.
A toilet. When the city's leak alerts fire, Abilene Water Utilities told KTAB the cause is a toilet more often than not, and that matches what we see. A flapper that's lost its seal lets water trickle from the tank into the bowl around the clock, silently. Put a few drops of food coloring in the tank, wait ten minutes without flushing, and look in the bowl. Color means a leak. The EPA says to replace flappers at least every five years, and mineral buildup from our 14-grain water doesn't help them last.
The sprinkler system. It runs before sunrise when nobody's watching, which is exactly when a stuck zone valve or a broken head does its damage. A leak the thickness of a dime — a thirty-second of an inch — can waste about 6,300 gallons a month, per the EPA. Run each zone and walk it: heads that geyser, heads that keep weeping after the zone shuts off, a patch of yard that stays soft or greener than the rest. Then check the controller for a second program somebody set and forgot.
A water softener. Plenty of Abilene homes run one, and a softener stuck in its regeneration cycle sends water straight to the drain nonstop until somebody bypasses it. Listen for water running through it at odd hours. That's your leak, and it never leaves a wet spot.
The water heater. A relief valve that's weeping or a tank that's started to seep often drains into the pan and out a line to the exterior, so you never see a puddle. Check the pan and the end of that drain line. If it's the tank, the signs a water heater is about to fail covers what comes next.
Outdoor faucets and hoses. A hose bib dripping behind the shrubs, or a hose left under pressure with a bad washer. The EPA figures one faucet dripping once a second wastes over 3,000 gallons a year.
The service line. The pipe from the meter to your house is on your side of the meter. When it fails, the water heads down into our clay and doesn't always show on the surface. A soggy strip across the yard in dry weather, grass that's greener along one line, or a meter that keeps moving with the house shut off all point here.
Under the slab. A warm spot on the floor, running water you can hear with everything off. We wrote that one up in full: slab leaks in Abilene homes: signs you shouldn't ignore.
A leak doesn't replace the water you use. It stacks on top of it, so it's always billed at the most expensive rate on your statement.
Inside the house or out in the yard? One valve tells you
Find the main shutoff for the house — usually where the water line comes through the wall in a garage or utility closet, or in a box near the foundation. Close it, then check the meter, or wait an hour and look at the portal.
- Meter still moving with the house valve shut: the leak is between the meter and the house, in the service line under your yard.
- Meter stopped: the leak is inside. Start with the toilets, then the softener, then the water heater.
Don't skip this one. It's the difference between pulling a toilet and digging up your yard, and you can know which before you call.
When to call for leak detection in Abilene
If you've dye-tested the toilets, walked the sprinkler zones, and the overnight usage still won't drop to zero, what's left is the stuff you can't see: a service line under the yard, a supply line inside a wall, or a line under the slab. That's where our electronic leak detection earns its keep. We pinpoint the leak instead of guessing, quote the repair before any digging starts, and use trenchless methods where the situation allows. Bring your portal screenshot to the call; it speeds things up.
If water is actively pouring somewhere, shut the main and call our 24/7 emergency line instead of reading any further.
If you'd rather have somebody check all of this once a year, our Home Care Plan ($299 a year or $29 a month) includes an annual 32-Point Home Inspection that covers the water service, supply lines, fixtures, and water heater. The standalone 32-Point Inspection is $249 and gets credited toward approved repairs.
We're owner-operated and licensed in Texas as a Master Plumber (M-18761). We'd rather find your leak in an afternoon than watch you pay the city for it every month. Real work, real people, no corporate runaround.
Call or text (325) 701-7017 or request service online.
Frequently asked questions
I got a leak alert from the City of Abilene. What should I check first?
The toilets. The city's own utility staff say that's the usual cause when an alert fires. Do the food-coloring test on every toilet in the house, then check the sprinkler controller and walk the zones. If those come up clean, pull up the hourly usage in the portal and see when the extra water started.
My bill went up but nothing in the house is wet. Where's the water going?
Down a drain you're not looking at. Toilets leak tank-to-bowl, softeners drain to a standpipe, water heater pans drain outside, and irrigation runs before sunrise. Those four account for most of the “dry” leaks we find. A yard service line is next, and Big Country clay can swallow a surprising amount of water before the surface gives it away.
Can a running toilet really raise my bill that much?
Yes. A flapper that doesn't seal can quietly leak thousands of gallons a year, and because Abilene bills water in tiers, those gallons sit on top of your normal use at the highest rate you pay. It's a few-dollar part that can cost more than the plumber's visit in a single billing cycle.
How do I know if the leak is under my yard?
Shut the main valve at the house and see whether the meter keeps moving, or check the city portal an hour later. If water is still going with the house closed, the leak is in the service line between the meter and the house. We locate it electronically before anyone digs.
Bill went up and you can't find why?
We find hidden leaks for a living. Electronic leak detection, a straight answer on inside-or-outside, and a quote before anything gets opened up. Licensed, owner-operated, and available 24/7 for active leaks across Abilene and the Big Country.
Call (325) 701-7017 Leak Detection & Repair