Cities alert winter water users to guard against frozen pipes

BREWSTER – As the seasonal calendar turns its page to November, residents hereabouts begin giving some thought to winter water conditions and particularly, freezing pipes.
This year, as Brewster public works personnel near the completion of the installation of new water meters, city water users will be able to monitor their winter water bills on a monthly basis, thanks to the upgrade.
“We are almost done with installation of the radio-read meters,” said Brewster Public Works Director Lee Webster. “We have about 47 left out of a total of 730.”
While the new meters will make the issuance of winter water bills possible, they won’t release homeowners from the responsibility of preventing residential and business water service freeze-ups.
In fact, the City of Brewster has an ordinance in its municipal code, specifically 13.04.045 Prevention of freezing, that mandates proactive steps to be taken to avoid such. The ordinance reads in part:
During any period of sub-freezing temperatures, the owner or occupant of the premises shall cause a constant flow of water through the meter at a rate sufficient to prevent freezing of the metering apparatus, valves and pipes serving the premises.
This is accomplished by allowing a continuous small flow of water through the cold water tap in the kitchen or bathroom sink. Common sense would imply that a small flow does not mean a fully open tap, and the new monthly bills will reflect little to no change in water consumption.
Last winter alternately freezing and thawing conditions drove the frost line lower into the ground than normal and resulted in numerous water line breaks that taxed the city’s resources to repair.
Pateros
Pateros city clerk Kerri Wilson said that while Pateros does not actually mandate water freezing prevention steps by ordinance, the city does send out reminders with the monthly invoice to alert water users to protect lines when the temperature drops. The winter billings reflect a base rate charge during the period from November through March when public works personnel do not read the monthly water meters.
Bridgeport
Bridgeport follows a procedure similar to Pateros. the last meter reading of the year occurs in October and readings do not resume until the following March.
There is no ordinance in Bridgeport’s municipal code that mandates water user responsibilities to prevent freezing pipes. The city does issue reminders with water invoices and correspondence to alert users to coming low temperatures and recommendations to take to prevent pipes from freezing.
Bridgeport Public Works Superintendent Stuart Dezellem also encourages city water users to allow a small flow of water from the kitchen or bathroom tap during low temperature periods to prevent frozen pipes.