Mystery leak in rural N.S. community sees water use suddenly double

Municipal officials in Nova Scotia's Annapolis County are trying to get to the bottom of a water leak mystery in the Cornwallis Park community.

"I've never run across this," said Stephen McInnis, director of operations for the county."And I've been in the business a long time."

On Monday, water consumption spiked significantly. The water treatment plant normally needs to produce about400,000 litres per day to keep up with community needs, but ithas more than doubled to between 800,000and 900,000 litres.

Crews have searched for broken pipes that might be leaking large amounts of water,but have not located any.

"So our suspicion is that somebody has a leak in one of the houses, and it might be a homeowner that's away on vacation," said McInnis.

Residents urged to check basements

Local residents are being asked to check their basements or their neighbours' homes and report any increased water coming up through the ground.

The county said there's also been a spike in what's entering the sewage treatment plant, suggesting some of the mystery water is returning through the sewer system.

McInnis plans to continue trying to find the source of the leak.

"The next step is to get what they call geophones or listening devices, and see if we can track down where the leak is," said McInnis."So we'll begin listening at night."

The water and sewage treatment plants can handle the spike in water usage, according to McInnis.