ONWASA understands accidents happen and water pipes can break. An issue that often comes up for our Military when called away from home for long periods of time, for seasonal dwellings and even for families while away on vacation, is that of broken pipes or stuck commode valves during the time the home is unoccupied. Coming home to a flooded house is a terrible thing nobody would want to experience. Added to this misery would be an extremely large water bill for the water having gone through the meter.
Follow these tips before leaving to prevent problems while away from home:
• Unplug small appliances and electronics.
• Turn off water at the main shut-off valve. ONWASA will be happy to help you locate this valve if you do not know its location.
• Turn off water valves to the dishwasher, washing machines and under all sinks.
• Turn off power to the water heater. This will ensure the heating elements do not burn out should the unit drain and not able to refill. Once you return, run hot water for a few minutes to freshen the water in the heater.
• Pour a half cup of chlorine into the bowl (not tank); this will help keep bacteria from collecting and causing stains.
ONWASA must obey the law, but also cares about our customers and have put into place written policies and procedures to ensure all of our customers are treated fairly. ONWASA prides itself on finding reasonable ways to work with customers while at the same time staying within the legal strictures statutorily required of us. It is usually always better, however, to prevent a problem than to try to find a solution.
ONWASA is a legally structured public, non-profit agency organized pursuant to Chapter 162A of the North Carolina General Statutes, and as such our operations are rigidly governed by a multitude of laws and regulations. Many of these laws and regulations are in place to narrowly define how ONWASA collects and spends its customers’ money, since ONWASA is an authority and does not collect property taxes in any form to help fund its operations. For example, ONWASA is allowed to set rates for categories of users such as residential, commercial or industrial; but is not allowed to charge individual customers within the same category a different rate. The law specifically forbids ONWASA from charging customers differing amounts based on such things as ability to pay, age, etc.
ONWASA would like all of our customers to know that ONWASA’s customer service and staff are here to help.
