Water Line Damage Alert

Submitted by a Sequoia Farms Homeowner:

hi,

this is an alert to sequoia farms home owners.

if you recently had Verizon FIOS crews digging cable lines on your property, you should double check the water flow to your house. if your water line has been cut, your water meter will show thruput, i.e., low flow indicator turns, even after you have shut off your main house input valve, and the lowest faucett has completely emptied, no trickle.
if positive water flow, check the meter reading, and compare to the most recent meter reading on your FCWA water/sewage bill; then you can compare to your avg. flow rate. e.g., my avg. usage per quarter was about 8 gallons/hour. i took several hourly readings after noticing i had a water bill more than double the previous quarter, and measured 60 gallons/hour!

if you suspect a water leak outside the house, call FCWA and they will respond promptly to investigate and check/confirm if you have a water service line leakage. my FCWA, "JR" Kirk, was very helpful, courteous, and even let me know he had to break away during my housecall, to respond to another SF home flooding water at the time, and let me know he was temporarily being called away, and when he would be back shortly, a level of communication effort rare in utility troublecall responders.

based on my experience with Mr. Kirk, i can say that FCWA are very efficient at checking your water service, also they have good info on what to do next in this situation-- don't delay; if i had received my meter reading just before the FIOS work, i may not have noticed the ground leak for almost a whole 3 months, until my next water bill mailing; unless of course obvious visual water damage to the property had surfaced in the meantime.

ps- if you order FIOS service, verizon say you do not have to be home when the "jerry-dropping" crews come to do the work, as they won't need to enter your house. i recommend that you ask to be notified when they arrive, so you can be present and on-site to inspect the work, just as for any construction work on a property you own!