In article , dpb wrote:

But, I've never been anywhere w/ inside meters as outlined above -- they
put the meter as close to the main as they can for precisely the reason
of minimizing that supply line that's theirs plus, of course, in the
olden days before wireless it was quicker/easier for reading to only
have to walk the street easement.

Conditions vary.

Pretty much the entire easement in front of my house is a drainage
ditch (no storm sewers on my street, a couple of miles outside of
Ann Arbor, Michigan). Currently, it's under a 2-3 of feet
of snow: not only the snow that has fallen in the last 6 weeks,
but the snow that was flung there by the snowplows.. The water main
shutoff is belowground at the property line; they use a long rod to
turn the valve.

If the meter were in the easement, it would be more than 4 feet underground;
that's where the frost line is. My water service comes in about 6 feet
below grade; that's pretty typical.

Here in the snowy country, most people have their water meter in the
basement. A retrofitted transmitter is pretty common, allowing the
readings to be taken by a truck driving down the street. Before the
transmitter, we would get a postcard every month from the utility.
We'd mark the position of the indicators on the meter and send it back.
Every year or so they'd send someone into the house to verify that we
weren't lying about our meter readings.


Cindy Hamilton
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