Coates and Donner, who have owned their house in Lindenwald for about six years, received a letter from the city dated Nov. 11, 2013, advising them of a leak on their water service. It stated that they were required to hire a plumber and contact the city’s Construction Services Division to take care of the leak, or else have their water service discontinued within 10 days of the date of the letter.
“We questioned that,” Donner said. “We called several people with the city, asking them, why do you think we have a problem? There’s no standing water, nothing in our water bill.”
The leak detection survey, contracted to M.E. Simpson, a Valparaiso, Ind., company that provides technical services for water and wastewater utilities, surveyed approximately 1.6 million lineal feet of water main, including all fire hydrants, accessible mainline valves, and selected services, according to a report by M.E. Simpson submitted to the city of Hamilton in January 2014.
Tech workers found 64 leaks in the city lines, of which six were main line leaks, 14 were service line leaks — meaning water lines that connect the main city line to the home or business — six valve leaks, and 38 hydrant leaks. Coates’ and Donner’s property was listed as having a service line leak.
“Not all of these points that we record are always leaks,” the report states. “This is why we record these points and return at a later date to determine if they are really leaks or not.”
However, the customer curb box at the Coates and Donner’s property was too full of debris to determine whether the possible leak was on the city side of the box or the customer side, and the company would return to pinpoint the leak once the curb box was cleaned out by the city, the contractor said.
“That leak could be at or very close to customer curb box,” reads a letter obtained by the Journal-News from M.E. Simpson Field Services Manager Rick Hufnus to City Senior Civil Engineer Joy Rodenburgh. “We could not key this service due to it being full of debris at this time (11-7-13). This day we could not fully determine which side that leak was on.”
“We were never notified that customer curb box had been cleaned out in order to relisten/pinpoint this leak,” the letter continues. According to M.E. Simpson’s report, theirs was the only property that the tech workers were unable to determine whether the leak was on the customer or city side while conducting the survey.
Rodenburgh stated in an email that city crews cleaned the curb box and sounded the valve using their own equipment.
“They determined the leak was on the customer’s side of the valve,” she said.
The couple maintains that if there had been a leak of the size that M.E. Simpson estimated — 5,260 gallons per day, according to the report — there would have been more indication.
The couple hired a contractor on Dec. 2, 2013, to replace the old lead water line from the curb stop to the meter inside of the residence, and install a new 3/4-inch copper pipe along the same trench as the existing lead water line. According to the invoice from Century Contracting Company in Hamilton, it cost $1,775.
“We did not find any evidence of a leak, spoils were dry throughout,” the invoice concludes.
Coates and Donner said they tried to work with the city to be reimbursed for what they said turned out to be unnecessary charges, but months later and after several conversations with various employees of the Underground Utilities Department, they have not been successful.
“Once the service line was replaced, city crews sounded the service line and the area and determined there were no leaks, which is the result we would expect,” Rodenburgh said.
She added that M.E. Simpson and the city had tested all fire hydrants in the city, including one on the corner of Van Hook Avenue and Brough Avenue, across the street from Coates’ and Donner’s residence, which was determined not to be leaking.
“We didn’t repair anything, we didn’t do anything, yet we paid $1,800,” Coates said. “Of course it was going to test no leak.”
To date, Donner and Coates have not received compensation for the money spent to fix a leak that wasn’t found, though the city offered to pay for half of the $1,775 charged by the plumber, which the couple refused to take.
“If nothing else, I’d like other residents to know about this,” Donner said. “In hindsight, I would have asked, who is going to pay for this if there isn’t a problem? Because it’s just not right.”
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