Again we see thwarting any responsibility to clean up messes goes down the line no matter how big the culprit is. The Water Authority and BP have alot of similarities.
Bogged down in a dispute with Water Authority
Homeowner’s claim that faulty valve turned lawn into swamp is refuted
By Matthew Spina
News Staff Reporter
Updated: June 12, 2010, 11:30 am / 6 comments
Published: June 12, 2010, 10:55 am
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Whatever the source, the water in the front yard created a huge mess. The lawn became a swamp. Over near the porch, mud sucked in any foot that dared to cross.
Then the porch itself started pulling away from the house and listing toward the street. The bog in front of 121 Velore Ave., a modest Orchard Park cottage, had undermined six concrete footings. The porch would soon be free to almost float off.
Frank Davison, who bought 121 Velore from his aunt in 2006, saw it as a fixer-upper. But he expected to fix what was his to fix.
He couldn’t fix the water valve near the street that Davison says sprang a leak, created a marsh and then, over two years, ruined Aunt Nancy’s porch.
The crew that dug up the valve on April 27, 2009, confirmed his suspicions. They agreed the valve was leaking and replaced it, he said.
But the people back at Erie County Water Authority headquarters had a different take.
“They were very unfriendly about the whole thing,” Davison said recently, looking back on the ordeal. “And they were like, ‘If you want anything from us, you are going to have to sue us.’
“It was extremely frustrating,” he added. “You pay your taxes. You pay your water bill. And they treat you like dirt.”
The water authority says Davison never proved his claim, and the agency can’t expect its other customers to cover his expenses.
“If the evidence does not support an allegation, the Erie County Water Authority has an obligation to its ratepayers to deny the claim,” spokesman Brian Bray said. “If the evidence does support the claim, the Erie County Water Authority does everything within its power to rectify the situation.”
The water authority maintains that the valve in Davison’s front yard wasn’t leaking, it was only “inoperable” and had to be replaced. Bray said the reports completed by the crew and a contractor hired for the job do not confirm they found a leak.
Davison found that out when he sought $900 to cover his cost to dig and pour six new concrete supports. A claims representative wrote back: “The Erie County Water Authority will not be making any voluntary payments for your alleged damages.”
Bray said workers had tested the water around the valve — also referred to as the curb stop — and found no chlorine. Traces of chlorine would have confirmed that a leak created the swamp.
“Because there is no evidence suggesting that the curb-box was ever leaking, it could not be concluded that the cause of damage to the footings was the curb-stop box,” Bray said.
Still, when the box was replaced, the lawn eventually dried out, Davison says. An engineering firm he hired to assess the porch also concluded that a “non-natural” source of water created the bog. In other words, it wasn’t ordinary runoff.
“Before the curb stop was fixed, the water extended all the way to the foundation wall where the porch used to be,” Davison said. “There would be virtually a puddle there, and extremely muddy. After it was repaired, in the normal cycle of rainfall it would get wet in those areas but then it would dry out in just a couple of days.”
He theorizes that a water authority crew damaged the curb stop when it shut off water to the vacant home in 2007 because the valve at first could not be turned. Davison said that in his discussions with the claims staff, they considered it almost impossible that the device could be leaking. But Bray acknowledged the water authority replaced up to 25 leaking curb stops in 2009.
In some ways, the Davison matter sounds like the water authority stiff-arm that was given to Jake Gruber.
Gruber is the Amherst homeowner who could only watch while the water authority shut off his service in the spring of 2007 over an unpaid bill of around $4,000. But the bill was created by the the authority’s own mistake.
Its workers had damaged Gruber’s water connection when installing a new meter in 2005. Still, Gruber was expected to fix the leak because it was found between the meter and the home. Gruber and his family, which included three children under age 10, went without water for five days in May 2007 until he signed a payment plan under duress.
Enraged, Gruber took the authority to small claims court and won. The authority appealed and appealed again, and Gruber won and won again. The authority appealed a third time on a technicality. And the State Supreme Court’s Appellate Division ruled unanimously in Gruber’s favor.
When the Erie County Legislature decided recently whether to reappoint Water Authority Chairman Frank E. Swiatek to another three-year term, lawmakers asked Swiatek why the agency took such a hard line with Gruber.
Swiatek said Gruber had been given time to sign a payment plan but refused.
“You have to stay consistent,” he said.
Swiatek was not reappointed — largely for political reasons beyond his control.
The water authority paid Gruber the $4,445 he was due. He still expects an apology.
Davison’s conflict has nothing to do with the location of the leak. It has to do with whether there was a leak at all during the months when no one lived in the house and everyone thought the water had been shut off at the street.
Davison said the crew that dug out his valve 14 months ago claimed that they had found the problem. Indeed, there was a puddle of water around the device, and the workers confirmed a leak, Davison said. But when claims representative Anthony J. Allessi asserted there was no proof of a leak, Davison could not prove him wrong.
Davison said he thought it reasonable to settle for $900 because he was going to rebuild the decrepit porch anyway. Then, when he dismantled the porch, he found the supports offering all the integrity of wheat stalks.
He actually pulled one of them out with his hands, he said.
Today the old porch is gone. Timbers prop up the front of the house. And Davison sees his experience as a cautionary tale for any homeowner fighting the water authority, which serves 550,000 people in Buffalo’s suburbs.
“I was going to put signs on my front lawn warning people about dealing with the water authority,” he said. “And the advice I would have — and this would extend to anyone from any utility or authority — ask for identification. And if they are doing any physical work, get a camcorder and record every second of work that they do.”
mspina@buffnews.com
Your porch doesn't rot out in one day.. To me it was a money grab..Originally Posted by Rhiannon
I put in a new driveway in 2008. In the fall, there was a small leak and it froze in the winter lifting everything. EC water came in and dug it all up and replace my new driveway that was damaged.
Kiss someone that's different. It helps.
Lets get the facts first, then go for the jugular!!
It's all transparent, just read between the lines..
If you read the article fully, he isnt bitching about the porch rotting out he is bitching about the wash out of his entire front yard which in turn destroyed the foundation of his porch.
The main reason I posted this was to make a point. Big business never takes any sort of responsibility for any damage they cause from negligence without having to go to Court and argue it out.
It just plays out all over the place in this Country from small municipalities to Big Oil.. Its crap.
Your right.. I should of read it fully.. I skimmed it and saw the picture and had to leave.. I was in a hurry..
Kiss someone that's different. It helps.
Lets get the facts first, then go for the jugular!!
It's all transparent, just read between the lines..
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