NLV mobile home monthly water bill runs $500 to $700

On a list that features some of the valley's most opulent estates, one address stands out like a rowboat at a yacht club: 2146 Wilkinson Way, North Las Vegas' largest residential water user.

The run-down mobile home on less than 7,000 square feet of weeds and dirt used nearly 2 million gallons of water in 2008, more than 12 times the average valley residence.

No homes in North Las Vegas landed among the valley's top 100 residential water users, but this place came the closest.

At No. 109, it finished last year above the homes of billionaire casino owner Sheldon Adelson, comedian Jerry Lewis and baseball great Greg Maddux.

At first it was a mystery. City officials simply couldn't explain why that particular house was No. 1 on the list requested by the Review-Journal, so a utility technician was sent out to check the property near Lake Mead Boulevard and Pecos Road.

"We couldn't find anything outdoors," said Mike Wilson, business services manager for the city's utilities department.

Meanwhile, the water meter continued to spin along at a rate of about 3.3 gallons per minute, suggesting perhaps a broken toilet valve or a water heater filling nonstop inside the home.

But here's the part that really left city officials scratching their heads: Records indicated the heavy water use had been going on for more than two years, but the owner kept on paying the monthly bill, which ranged from $500 to almost $700.

A similar property might expect to pay about $25 a month for water, Wilson said.

Was this an empty house with an absentee landlord? Was something nefarious going on behind the bars on the windows?

"Maybe they're shrimp farmers," joked an official from another water utility.

The real answer finally came on March 4, when the owner of the house, Victoria Martinez, responded to city officials' repeated attempts to contact her.

The next day, a customer service representative met with the woman at her home to take a look at the problem and talk about her options.

What the representative found was a dripping leak in a bathroom sink and a bathtub faucet running full blast all the time.

"You can't turn it on; you can't turn it off," Wilson said of the tub.

Martinez declined to comment for this story.

City officials urged her to hire a plumber and get the leaks fixed. As an incentive, they offered to discount the charges on her last two bills once the work is done. So far, though, there has been no word on whether the repairs have been made.

Wilson said the discount alone would save Martinez roughly $470. She also would save thousands more when she stops using as much water in a month as the average home goes through in a year.

Then there is the less tangible benefit: As soon as the bathtub stops running, 2146 Wilkinson Way should quickly vanish from the list of the valley's largest water users.

Contact reporter Henry Brean at hbrean @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0350.