Dear Midway City Water Customer:
Due to prolonged and extreme cold weather conditions we are experiencing a number of frozen water lines. To help prevent the problem we are asking you to leave a water stream at least the size of a pencil running from a culinary water spigot on the outside of your house. Please use a hose to drain the water away from your house. All houses including newly constructed houses have outside culinary water spigots.
Midway water users are not charged extra for water use in the winter months so running water through a hose outside will not affect your bill. However if you leave a faucet running on the inside of your house it goes through the sewer system creating a higher volume going to the sewer treatment plant which could result in higher sewer bills. So we strongly suggest running water through an outside hose that is attached to the culinary water spigot.
The city is responsible for water delivery to the meter. The homeowner is responsible for the water line from the meter into the home. The city has no way of running water on their side, only the homeowner has that ability. Water is freezing on both sides of the meter and the city and the water consumers need to work cooperatively by having the consumer run water through a hose. If you have had a problem please do not turn off your water because the pipes have been unfrozen. Keep the water running at all times until the weather moderates significantly.
Another problem we have been experiencing is water customers turning off the water at the meter and/or leaving the meter lid off thus exposing it to more cold. Only Midway personnel are authorized to turn water off or on. Turning the water off may also result in freezing.
The Public Works department is working almost without rest trying to resolve the frozen pipes. Problems are being addressed on a first call first serve basis. It is frustrating to the work crew who have been to a house once or even twice unfreezing the lines only to have the homeowner turn off the running water which prevents the problem. Those homes will fall to the bottom of the list. Please keep your water running.
Thank you for your cooperation. We need to work together to resolve the problems. Please be patient as the crew is working as hard and as fast as they can. Warm weather wouldn’t hurt so whoever is in charge of that please turn up the heat.
