Aug 15, 2008 4:00 pm US/Central
Lance Armstrong Is Austin's No. 1 Water User

AUSTIN (AP) ― Lance Armstrong always had a bottle of water within reach when he powered up the mountains in the Tour de France.

He'd need a bigger bike or one whopper of a water jug to carry the hundreds of thousands of gallons pumping to and through his Mediterranean-style villa in Austin.

A review of June water records -- the most recent available -- by the Austin American-Statesman found the retired cycling great's 1.1-acre residence pumped 222,900 gallons as the summer was really starting to heat up.

That makes him Austin's No. 1 water user -- by a long shot. His total for June was about the same as 26 city households.

rest of the story:
http://cbs11tv.com/local/Lance.Armst...79.html#btn_mc

I'm not prepared to point the finger at Lance, he hasn't even been in that home since the middle of June.

It makes me wonder what his property caretakers have been up to in his absence! He did say that he's equally appalled and will correct the situation.

I wonder if there's an undetected leak somewhere.

If someone else is handling his bills shouldn't they have seen the discrepancy and looked into it?

Is there a pool on the property? A sprinkler system? Sounds like there's a leak somewhere.....but if he hasn't been in the house for two months I'd say someone has some 'splainin' to do!

That's the press for you! Print the story and then do the research. If he has been gone and the property is using THAT much water, there is obviously something awry!

Or, that's the water usage for months prior and it's just catching up, or who knows! I find it hard to believe that one household could possibly use that much water unless there was a leak...like water main or something and then there would be water running in the street. I wonder if anyone has looked in his basement for a flood!

i found more-

[The list of the top 10 water users reads like a cross-section of Austin culture: prominent lobbyist Neal "Buddy" Jones ranks third, tech executive Marc Hafner seventh and health-care magnate Robert Girling eighth. Country singer Jerry Jeff Walker rounds out the top 10. Among them, they used about 1.55 million gallons of water — enough to fill an enclosed football field 31/2 feet deep.

The original top 10 list included two people who used large amounts of water because of unusual circumstances — a broken pipe and a pool that was inadvertently left cycling water while the owner was on vacation — and don't have a history of high bills, according to the city. They were dropped from the story at the city's request.

The people on the modified top 10 list who were reached for this story offered as explanations: a broken water pipe, lack of knowledge of their high usage or both. ]
http://www.statesman.com/news/conten...svc=7&cxcat=52

We don't even use that much water to irrigate our 4-acre tree nursery in a two week period! And that's using irrigation water that is alloted to us.

That's why I am of the mind that something is definitely wrong or misused somewhere. Someone is definitely not paying attention!

Well, at least he said it's unacceptable and will be looking into it. That sure is a lot of water! I would fall over if my water bill was over $1g!

After reading the second article, I'd really like the water plant's measuring system checked, something stinks in all this.