For the last two months a small team of HBA members and staff has worked with Greenville Water to work out the details on implementation of their new process on water meter offsets. This is what you can expect on Monday for lots with existing taps:
- You will be able to offset the meter from the tap, up to 10 feet, as has been the practice for more than 30 years.
- You will not be required to kill the tap and relocate it.
- For existing lots, if paved and the tap is under the driveway:
- Dig back to the curb and pull the lateral to the side (without bending it of course) so that the meter is outside the pavement, with no coupling. The meter can be in the greenspace between the sidewalk and the street. GW will allow an elbow at the meter to reorient it toward the house.
- If digging back does not resolve the problem, the meter may be placed in the driveway with a meter box specified by GW. However, the driveway must have expansion joints cut 2′ above and below the meter box so that driveway repairs in the future are minimized.
- If all else fails, a GW-specified coupling can be used at the direction of GW.
This change will be effective June 8.
For lots created after June 8, the water tap should be located to ensure that conflicts with the driveway location are avoided. Greenville Water’s guidance to place the tap in the middle of the lot has ended. Developers will place the tap in the location that ensures it is not under the driveway. Be mindful that the water tap may not be in the same trench with the sewer tap. And note that the options above for existing lots will not apply to new lots.
Assume that lot creation means the point at which a water line is installed on the lot.
For most lots going forward, locating the water line correctly will avoid any problems. However, some lots, like town homes, can still be challenging. GW will work with you and your engineer and developer to tackle these issues to include potentially burying extra pipe to accommodate an offset to a meter without a coupling or locating the meter in the driveway.
Greenville Water Meter Reset Fee to Increase
When Greenville Water comes to your site to set the meter, and is unable to do so because of a condition on the site, they currently charge $40 to return to the site. That also changes with the change in practice on offsets. The new fee will be $250.
Scheduling Ahead of Time is Important, But Not Too Far Ahead of Time
Greenville Water schedules their meter sets five days after you call. They suggest that you not schedule the meter set on the day you prep your site for the meter. Instead, schedule the meter set and prep the site the day before the meter is scheduled to be set. This will avoid one of the biggest problems with a site prepped for a meter several days ahead of time: rain. Most of the time the reason why a meter is not set when scheduled is because the trench is full of water. This also will prevent another problem: rainwater running down the water line and undermining the street.
Note that Greenville Water now requires their field team to photograph the site when they have set the meter. They also require them to photograph the site if they are unable to set the meter. So if the field team is being unreasonable, GW management will address it (and has).
We Need Your Help! Last Call!
If you have existing lots that you think will be impacted by the change in offset and will need to use one of the three options listed above, please email Michael Dey this week at MDey@HBAofGreenville.com.