Wednesday 12 September 2018

SPRINGTIME?





I noticed a water leak on our property last Friday and notified the council. There was seepage through the retaining wall between ours and the neighbours property. The council said that they would log the alert and that someone would be out to check within the next few days. As it was Friday I didn't expect anyone to come but a couple of hours later a contractor turned up to check things out.

Like when you go to the doctor about a pain, when the contractor turned up the flow of water had stopped. Fortunately though there was evidence of where it had been flowing and the guy confirmed that it was on the street side of our water meter so it was the council's problem, not ours.  While he was there though we both noticed a huge flow of water going through a drain by the road at the front of our property. On lifting the heavy grate  the flow could be seen coming not from our property or from uphill i.e. not from a stream or from rainfall but from along the road where there is a fire hydrant. He climbed down the drain hole (there were footholds built in) and took a water sample for checking for chlorination which would confirm that it was council water.

He said to call the council again if the other flow, along our property line started up again

Of course a couple of hours after he'd gone it started up again, this time pouring out rather than pulsing. I called the council again.

On Monday a different contractor came to check. He confirmed that it was a council problem and wouldn't cost us anything and painted some marks on the road. We discussed what they were going to do with me pretending to know what he was talking about.

 

On Tuesday the flow stopped again and today two different contractors (how many of these people do they have?) turned up with a digger. As the flow on our property had stopped there was nothing that they could do there - no doubt it will start up again after they've gone - they proceeded to dig up the road.



They've dug down quite a long way and seem to be doing a lot of standing with hands on hips and shaking their heads but haven't cut off my water yet. I've filled up a couple of water jugs though just in case.

3 comments:

Robert Sees Things in Sky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
THE CURMUDGEON said...

Well, they're still there and have called in for reinforcements with a supervisor now watching the two guys standing there. They are all shaking their heads and now the water is off.

THE CURMUDGEON said...

Water's back on.
They've filled up the hole (at one stage the caterpillar digger went into the hole and nearly didn't get out).
All is well in the world in the Winterless North.