Someone with the water department of my town came unannounced and dug out my ditch looking for a leak, which we were unaware of. They then “cleaned” up their mess and left me with this after finding no leak. I feel like they should be held responsible for ruining my yard, but I’m not sure. Should I pursue them to get it fixed?
by stone11roberts
21 Comments
Thanks government
You can try.
They will probably tell you that it is technically an easement off the road and actually public land.
They could say there is an X foot easement for public works, or they might have contracted a third party to do the work.
Can’t hurt to ask.
The gas company in my area discovered no shut off Valve on my property other than the one located on my meter. They dug 2 separate 5×5 foot holes in my yard. When finished the had a remediation team come to my house to clean up and plant grass seed…etc.
I’m 99% certain they’re going to say it’s an easement so it’s not technically their responsibility to repair it.
The city or town owns the right of way. That’s where they locate all the water, electrical, sewage and gas lines. Doubt they will do anything since you don’t own that part of the property.
I work as an engineer for a municipality and this is very common. If they suspect there is a leak they may dig to investigate if the water main is leaking somewhere. If this is in the right of way or a utility easement usually sometime after the work is performed a crew will come out, grade and spread topsoil and seed. It does sometimes take a few days for them to restore the area.
Did you call the water department and ask if they would restore the landscaping?
If they don’t want to restore check if there is any type of language in the code about the city restoring areas that they disturb.
Working in the utility business they should restore that at some point
Yeah you can try but good luck and who knows what kind of easement they have
How do you know it’s not on their schedule?
That’s probably within the utility easement. In our city it’s three feet in from the curb.
Yes
When they came and replaced our connection to the sewer, they put new sod down.
But, that was only 3 sf, maybe
I don’t know where you live, but it’s very likely that land is not yours. Look at your local GIS or your survey if you have one. That should be ROW which is owned by the municipality. They own it and they can do as they wish with it. Yes it sucks for you, but if you want their land to match yours, it will be up to you to make that happen.
Be nice but adamant about how bad it is. they might come out and restore it. Sadly that is the limit as I’m sure they will mention something about easement rights
it’s almost always not the water dept guys that restore that so it may be a few days. You should call them Monday and ask, sometimes it’s a very low priority unless you call.
Please call your water company or whomever is responsible for this mess. Don’t come at them angry, just matter of fact ask them when they were sending a crew to regrade and fix the lawn.
In my experience (15yrs working for a water company), the leak detection guys are rarely also the guys that come out to fix the mess.
Fun fact- our leak detection professionals used essentially fancy amplified stethoscopes where they would go listen at/ on the fire hydrants for the sound of a leak (aka sound of water running/ hissing). There is also equipment that screws onto the hydrants where it “listens” for the sounds of a water leak on the pipes. If the data from three relatively close hydrants is used they can triangulate the location of a leak!
My city would 100% fix that…. Although I doubt they would leave it in the first place.
Looks pretty fresh. Could probably give them some time. Could just call and ask.
Chances are that isn’t your yard and is the city/town’s property.
Generally they will return it as found, but obviously that isn’t going to be immediate.
I work for a utility company. Yes call them. They should have a landscaping dept. or someone external to correct this. It can take a couple of weeks, since they wirk according to priorities.