Strengthening Leak Language

Sonora, CA – The lingering drought has Tuolumne Utilities District (T.U.D.) amending its 2008 Water Leak Adjustment Policy, which gives customers a discount on water costs related to leaks from broken water systems.

T.U.D. officials report recently staff has experienced a significant increase in the number of customer leak adjustment requests and with the continued drought; the policy needed some fine-tuning.  The amendments to the policy include:

• A customer’s account must be in good standing and current to be eligible for potential leak adjustment.  A leak adjustment will generally only be granted once within a 24-month period.  Additional requests require approval by the General Manager or Board of Directors.  No leak adjustments will be granted during District declared drought status.
• Proof must be provided that the leak was fixed within 14 days of discovery.
• The leak adjustment calculation may not span more than one billing cycle.

One board member questioned if the changes went far enough.  T.U.D. Finance Director Steve Sheffield replied, “It’s just giving us some clarification for people who are difficult, people who say, ‘Show me where it says that in the policy’ and keep it from going to the board.  These changes will help us do some house cleaning.  As we go forward,if we get another drought, maybe we do need to provide some clean up language. We can certainly do that anytime.”

The Board voted unanimously in favor of the amendments.