Signs of old age. Yesterday Jerry sent me a text that said, "I found it". We have, for the last six months, been trying to find a water leak.  Our monthly bills have, at time, exceeded $4,000.
He found the leak to be underground on our main water supply and leaking into the mitigation site all this time. He dug up the area near the boat wash only to find the water line here had been covered with concrete. You can see above where it goes under the concrete. He felt he could do it before dark as it was only about 1pm. He tried to turn off the old brass valve in the circular sleeve at the bottom of the picture. It would not close completely and this made it next to impossible to repair the the leak.

The leak was just as the line came out from under the concrete. This line feeds the 4, 5, 6, and 700 buildings. At that point he tried to turn off the water to the whole complex out by the fire hydrant. That old valve didn't work very well either. He then called for help and had Greg come out to help do some more digging. By 5 pm he knew we were in trouble. We called about every plumber in Rockport.  No one could come out until the next day. At 6:30 Jerry gave it up. He had arrived at 6am as that was the only time he could get a ride here that morning. He fished a bit until time to punch in so he was tired by 6:30. Just as he was leaving, Timm's plumbing called back that they could be here in 15 minutes. They had done work here in the past so I trusted them, but did not ask for a price. Just get here and get it done. Roger got here at 7pm so I sent Jerry home and let Roger direct action from then on. Roger called me and Jerry to give us updates as work progressed.

Nothing could be done until the city came out to turn off the valve on their side of the meter. They came out about 6:45 only to find their valve did not work either. Jerry had done the repair we needed earlier, but the our old gate valve refused to open. It was broken inside so we had to wait for the city to get their new valve and replace the old one. By about midnight all seemed to be repaired and they turned the water on. Of course, being that kind of day, or should I say next day, Jerry's earlier repair blew apart because he never could stop the flow of water long enough to get a good glue hold. He also had to use some older parts and they blew apart too. So Timm's took out his earlier repair and put a new line above the old concrete as seen above. They also put in a new PVC ball valve to replace the old brass gate valve in two places.
About 3:10  we were back on line. Roger stayed the whole time to oversee for us. The plumbers suggested we not drink the water unless boiled for the next day or so since a lot of mud got into the system during the work. Jerry notified owners and guests this morning.

This is the valve the city replaced on their side of the meter.

This was the culprit on our side of the meter. Notice the old  compression fitting that had been used years ago. These things have a limited life and this one had seen its day.
I have no idea on the cost, but we had no choice. I don't think anyone at Timm's would read this, but my guess is we are at about $2,500. Jerry is guessing half of that. I hope he is right on this one. Our owners and guests were very understanding during all of this. One even gave us some help. Most, like me, bought water from Walmart.