The Friday before Christmas, I came home in the evening to find the town-owned property in front of our front wall absolutely swamped. We have a prunus serrulata, a cupressus sempervirens and a walnut tree planted there, and they were all standing in a good 6 inches of water. I called the water company's emergency line, and decided to rake back all the river rock gravel that I use to keep the weeds under control. However, the leak was not near the street; instead, it was gurgling up just 8 inches from our front wall, walkway and gate.
Fearing for the integrity of the wall foundation, including the column holding up the large gate, I dug a drainage ditch to drain the water away from the wall and down the street towards the empty house lot next door. Our 18-year-old son was home from college for Christmas, and he gave me a hand with the digging.
By the time we got the water draining away from the wall, the water company technician had arrived and immediately told me to step away - "That's not water," he said. WHAAAAT?! It was night, dark, and some water was running into a storm drain, so I thought the smell was coming from there.
Apparently, our gated community has a very superficial sewage system that has a number of faults. New pumps were installed about a year ago, and leaks have been popping up in several áreas ever since. We had no idea.
So, the following day (yes, the FOLLOWING day), the municipal workers came out to turn off the pump for our street. The leak continued for another day, as gravity made the whole street drain at my front gate. Lovely. Merry Christmas. Bah-humbug.
So now, three weeks later, the water has finally been absorbed and the stench is gone, but no repairs have been made and the pumps have not been turned back on. So, where is it all going? Well, remember that lovely stream and reservoir we have behind our property? Yes... Oh, sh!t.
I would have said the same. I hope they have fixed it by now. Wear rubber gloves and have them fill in your trench. In fact by coincidence we were informed by our water district that we had a leak. My husband ended up digging 3 deep trenches to find the problem. Our water line runs 399+ feet from street to house. They had to put in a new shut off, pressure regulator and a third shut off. Even with all the trenches D dug the bill wa $1000. All I can be grateful for was that it wasn’t under the slab.
ResponderEliminarJenny, that sounds horrible! Fortunately, the leak is the responsability of the "town", but we are a small village of 400 with limited resources, so these things take time.
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