Check your water meter

1. On the meter itself. Your water meter is usually in a lid-covered pit near the street or curb (or in the basement/crawlspace in some homes). Lift the lid — the radio unit has a 10-digit number printed on it. In Rushville these typically start with 1584 or 1585.
2. On your water bill. The meter or account number may be printed on your statement.
3. Cross-check it's yours. When you look it up, the page shows the last meter reading in gallons — compare it to the numbers on your meter's dial to confirm you've got the right one.

A leak flag means a meter is worth checking — most often a running toilet — not that anything is confirmed.

For years I told the water utility my bill was too high. Nobody could tell me why. Then earlier this year the City replaced the meters town-wide, and my bill dropped $40–50 a month overnight — same house, same people, same habits. I went back through ten years of my own bills, and the new meter reads about 10–20% lower than the old one ever did.

That told me the old reads were wrong, and it made me wonder how many other houses had the same problem. So I built a way to check: a radio receiver that listens to the same broadcasts the utility's own drive-by reader uses, and reads every meter in town.

Of 3,085 meters read, 425 (13.8%) reported a leak flag. Those meters add up to roughly 2.4 million gallons a month of water that went through a meter and down a drain.

At the City's 2025 rates that is about $547,000 a year billed to residents for leaked water — roughly 11% of everything the water utility bills and 19% of what the sewer utility bills.

I shared the meter-level data with the City. They have told me it matches what they see. I have not received anything in writing.

The method, calibration, and math are written up in the methodology document linked under Documents below.

I read the City's annual financial reports on Indiana Gateway (2017–2025) and the State Board of Accounts audits (2017–2023). All are public. Every figure below is on a page you can open yourself — links are under Documents.

1. The "Leak Protection" fee on your bill

From 2017 to 2019 this fund took in about $36,000 a year from customers and paid the same amount straight back out, coded as "Insurance." The City collected the fee and paid an insurer.

Starting in 2020 the insurance payments stop. The fee doesn't. Since 2020 the fund has collected about $222,000 from residents and paid out about $25,000 — zero in 2024 and zero in 2025. It ended 2025 with $199,317 sitting in it.

2. A second program disappeared the same year

Fund 629, "Water Line Insurance," worked the same way (about $8k in, $8k out) until 2019. In 2020 that fund was renamed "Trash Fee."

3. The water utility is running a surplus and spending its reserve

Water Operating cleared about $278,000 in 2024 and $258,000 in 2025. At the same time, the money set aside each year for replacing equipment (the depreciation fund) went from $150–375k a year down to $0 in 2025, while $232,695 was spent out of that fund.

4. Large unlabeled payments

In 2025, $454,413 left Water Operating as "Other Disbursements" with no category, and $426,254 left Wastewater the same way. That is about a third of what the water utility bills.

5. The auditors have flagged the City's reporting twice

The State Board of Accounts found in 2020 and again in 2023 that the City did not have working controls over the numbers it enters into Gateway — figures that did not match the City's own books. A fix was promised in 2020. It repeated in 2023. Nothing after 2023 has been audited.

6. There is a plan nobody has seen

The City paid $87,280 for a Water & Wastewater Master Plan in 2025. Plans like that normally include a water-loss study — the utility's own version of the number above.

I am not saying anyone did anything wrong. I am saying these are the questions the records raise. If I have read something wrong, tell me and I will correct it here.

Some of these have been asked but never answered.

1. What does the leak protection fee buy customers today, and how does someone file a claim?
2. Why did the insurance payments stop in 2020, and were customers told?
3. What is the $199,317 for?
4. What are the "Other Disbursements" leaving the water and sewer operating funds?
5. What does the 2025 master plan say about water loss?
6. Does the meter system flag leaks, and does anyone get notified?
7. What is the plan and timeline for the leaking meters?

Responses will be posted here in full when they arrive.

Every source, unedited, from the State's own servers.

State Board of Accounts reports — City of Rushville

• 2023 compliance examination (Gateway findings 2023-001 and 2023-002) — in.gov/sboa/WebReports/12950S.pdf
• 2023 financial statement & federal audit (finding 2023-001, debt schedules) — 12950A.pdf
• 2022 financial statement audit (water tower and Diamond Pet Foods warrants) — 82360A.pdf
• 2022 compliance examination (no findings) — 82360S.pdf
• 2021 financial statement audit — B59639.pdf
• 2020 federal compliance audit (finding 2020-001, Gateway controls) — B57708.pdf
• 2019 federal compliance audit — B55741.pdf
• 2017 financial statement audit — B53244.pdf
• 2024 ARPA compliance examination — 25320A.pdf

Indiana Gateway annual financial reports (2017–2025)

Go to gateway.ifionline.org, open Report Builder → Annual Financial Report, choose Rush County → Rushville Civil City, and pick the year. The Leak Protection fund is 628 through 2021 and 6106 from 2022 on; "Water Line Insurance" is 629; Water Operating is 601 / 6101.

Nothing yet. Responses from the City, new survey results, and corrections will be posted here, newest first.

This page has no list of meters, no names, no addresses, and no map. It only answers a number you already know, one at a time. Meter numbers are stored as one-way hashes, so even the file behind this page does not contain a readable list. The town-wide figures above are totals only.