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

070(A)(2) treats an unrepaired leak in a customer's own plumbing or private distribution system as a prohibited nonessential water use once it runs for a substantial period after it reasonably should have been discovered and corrected. The section builds in two presumed timelines rather than leaving the question open-ended: one hour to stop the flow of water from a break or leak after the consumer discovers it or receives notice from the city, and seventy-two hours to correct the break or leak after that same discovery or notice.

Both clocks run from whichever comes first, the customer's own discovery or the city's notification, so a resident who is told about a leak by a water department employee reading the meter is on the same seventy-two hour clock as one who finds a wet spot in the yard. The presumption cuts both ways: a customer who stops and fixes a leak within those windows is not in violation, while one who takes longer without a documented reasonable excuse is deemed to have wasted water regardless of how it happened.

100, which lets the city make personal contact with the customer, leave a written notice with a correction date, and follow up with certified mail if contact fails.