Secondary meter installation leaves homeowner's water system damaged

OGDEN, Utah (KUTV) — A secondary meter installation left a homeowner’s system damaged. He said his calls to Pineview Water Systems went unanswered.

“Today alone, we’ve received over 300 phone calls — some days closer to 600. We have five people answering phones, and we try to get to every single one,” said Jeff Humphrey, general manager of Pineview Water Systems.

He said the district is installing meters as part of a state mandate that requires secondary water connections to be metered by 2030.

MORE | Water meters: Utah homeowners having problems with newly installed water meters

KUTV asked, “What is the process for residents to report damage, and how quickly can they expect a response?”

“There’s a lot of issues with it. No one — no one — is happy about it. And we do see a lot of pushback. A lot of our phone calls are coming in as, ‘Why do I need a meter? You’re not stepping on my yard,’” Humphrey said. “Depends on the damage. If it’s a flooding of a home, we’re right there. Any other damage, we’re right there to take care of it, to look at it so we can break it down.”

With more than 33,000 customers and thousands of meters installed, the district said most service requests are handled quickly.

“Everyone needs to realize it does take time to get to them. They don’t — not everyone’s more important than their next customer or their next neighbor. So we need to take care of everyone the fastest we can, and we’re doing the best we can with what we have at our hands,” Humphrey said.

He added that voicemails and emails are being checked and responded to daily.

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