1. Regulations; Ownership of Facilities and Responsibility Therefor. Upon the request of the owner of any property within the corporate limits of the Township, abutting upon a street wherein a water main exists or reasonably adjacent thereto, the Township will make connection to the main at the owner’s expense. All piping from the main to the curb shut-off shall be installed by the Township at the owner’s expense. The meter or meter pit shall be installed by the Township at the owner’s expense. The Township shall own and maintain the water service line from the main to the curb stop, and shall own and maintain the meter or meter pit. The owner shall be responsible for maintaining, repairing or replacing the water service line from the curb stop to the building, with the exception of the meter or meter pit. The Township reserves the right to repair, at the owner’s expense, any leak on a customer’s service pipe from the curb stop to the meter if the owner fails to do so after written notice from the Township. A water meter shall be installed in such piping located inside the building or within a meter pit, if the meter is equipped with an outside remote reading device which conforms to municipal standards. Each new water meter shall be furnished by the Township at the expense of the property owner. The Township shall have the right to remove any such water meter for testing or for maintenance and may furnish in its place another meter substantially the equal thereto as the need for such replacement may occur, without incurring liability therefor to the owner. [Ord. 2008-05]
A. Inspect. The Township shall inspect, test, adjust, maintain, and/or replace such meters at its own expense, except that any meter damaged in service through the negligent act or omission of the property owner or his tenant or agent, shall be replaced by the Township at the expense of the property owner. Meter damage resulting from freezing or back-flow of hot water shall be considered to be the result of negligence on the part of the owner or tenant.
B. Where water meters are presently installed inside buildings, the Township may at its option require the installation of a meter with the approved outside remote reading device. In such cases, the Township will provide installation at its expense.
2. Meter Accuracy. The accuracy of the water meters on the Township's system shall be determined in accordance with the rules and regulations of the Public Utility Commission of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Upon request of any user, the Township will remove the meter from the premises and test the accuracy thereof. If said meter is found to register a greater quantity of water than passed through it, to a degree exceeding the tolerance of accuracy prescribed by the AWWA standards for such cases, no charge shall be made for such test, and the bills for water rendered on the basis of the registration of said meter for a period of not more than 3 months preceding the removal thereof may be adjusted on an equitable basis. If the said meter is found to register a smaller quantity of water than that passed through it, or to be within the prescribed tolerances of accuracy, a charge shall be paid by the user for the testing of the meter in accordance with the schedule of charges adopted from time to time by the Township. Upon prior request, the water user may witness the water test during normal working hours.
3. Access to Premises. As long as water is piped to any building, authorized personnel of the Township shall at all reasonable times have access to the meters or service pipes to inspect, test, read, repair, remove, or replace the same, whether or not the occupant of the building is a water user, and such access shall not be impeded by coal, ashes, or rubbish, nor in any other manner. Failure to provide such free access shall be cause for termination of service until suitable access is provided.
4. Estimated Bill. In the event that a customer's water meter fails to register or is not read at the scheduled time, the Township may issue an estimated bill for the period involved based upon the records of the same customer's usage for comparable past periods. Any inaccuracy resulting from failure to read a user's meter at the regularly scheduled time will be corrected in the preparation of the bill based upon the next reading of the meter.
(Ord. 97-7, 5/27/1997, § 12.9; as amended by Ord. 2008-05, 8/25/2008, § 2)