Who knew there is an official Fix a Leak Week every year?  It’s true, and this happens to be the week.

Checking your toilet for leaks is quite easy – add a colored liquid (i.e. juice, red wine, food coloring) to the toilet tank and wait 15 minutes.  If the colored water appears in the bowl, the toilet is leaking.  NOTE: Be sure to flush as soon as the test is done, since food coloring may stain the bowl.

Hopefully you have no leaks, if you do, get it fixed and save on your water bill.

Some facts on leaks from the EPA:

• Leaks can account for, on average, 10,000 gallons of water wasted in the home every year, which is enough to fill a backyard swimming pool.
• The amount of water leaked from U.S. homes could exceed more than 1 trillion gallons per year. That’s equivalent to the annual water use of Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami combined.
• Ten percent of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day.
• Common types of leaks found in the home include leaking toilet flappers, dripping faucets, and other leaking valves. All are easily correctable.
• Fixing easily corrected household water leaks can save homeowners more than 10 percent on their water bills.
• Keep your home leak-free by repairing dripping faucets, toilet valves, and showerheads. In most cases, fixture replacement parts don’t require a major investment and can be installed by do-it-yourselfers.
• The vast majority of leaks can be eliminated after retrofitting a household with new WaterSense labeled fixtures and other high-efficiency appliances.

And specifically about toilets:

• If your toilet is running constantly, you could be wasting 200 gallons of water or more every day.
• If your toilet is leaking, the cause is most often an old, faulty toilet flapper. Over time, this inexpensive rubber part decays, or minerals build up on it. It’s usually best to replace the whole rubber flapper—a relatively easy, inexpensive do-it-yourself project that pays for itself in no time.
• If you do need to replace the entire toilet, look for a WaterSense labeled model. If a family of four replaces its older, inefficient toilets with new WaterSense labeled ones, it could save more than 16,000 gallons per year. Retrofitting the house could save the family approximately $2,000 in water and wastewater bills over the lifetime of the toilets.

For the full article, check out -http://www.epa.gov/WaterSense/pubs/fixleak.html