Mountain View, CA Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

Sec. 35.35.2 authorizes the public works director or a designee to adjust the sewer portion of a commercial or industrial customer's utility bill when increased water use is traced to an underground pipe leak. The adjustment is available only if the leak is repaired within one billing period of the first indication of the higher usage appearing on the customer's bill; wait longer and the window closes. The credit itself is capped: it cannot exceed the amount of sewer charges actually attributable to the leak, so the city is only crediting for water it never treated, not for the full spike in the water bill.

To claim the adjustment, the customer must submit a written request to the public works director and prove two things: that the leaking water never entered the sanitary sewer, and that the leak has actually been repaired. Proof of repair means a satisfactory repair bill for parts and labor. The ordinance also requires proof of resolution: the customer's next billing period must show usage back down to a normal level before the public works director will grant the adjustment. This is a sewer-specific process; the ordinance does not create a parallel adjustment for the potable water charges on the same bill, so a leak still costs the customer for the water itself, just not for treating water that was lost underground rather than flushed down the drain.