Call Before You Dig Sunshine 811

Do you know that Florida Law requires that you call 811 before you dig in your yard? I must honestly say, that in the "beginning," a while back, I did not know it was the law! When I had Duval Fence company install my fancy privacy fence, they told me they'd call to locate the lines. Nobody ever came out and marked my property. The day of the fence post installation, Duval Fence hit my AT&T line and took out my service. We were extremely LUCKY they did not take out the JEA power line!

Drake Chinese Elm Tree Cut Down

So, fast forward to January 16, 2015. I had called Camden and Son Tree Service to prune my Drake Chinese Elm tree in the front yard. When they showed up to give me an estimate on pruning, one thing led to another. "OK, how much to take it out?" I asked Diane Camden. She took a bit of time to survey the tree, walking around it and looking at the roots on the ground.

I knew it wouldn't be cheap, and I was ready for it. I didn't counter Diane about the price, as it encompassed tree and stump removal. The price? $475.00; which I paid immediately upon the tree removal. "OK, go ahead and take it out!" I told Diane. Camden and Son Tree Service cut down my Drake Chinese Elm tree in about two hours time.

Drake Chinese Elm Tree Removal by Camden and Son Tree Service
Photo Taken : January 16, 2015

As Diane Camden and crew were cleaning up, I mentioned to Diane that I would be calling Sunshine 811 before the stump was to be ground. And, to not schedule stump grinding right away, but wait for me to call her. By the time I finished up in the front yard, doing more intensive cleaning of the street, drive, and yard, it was too late to reach anyone at 811. It was interesting when I called the number, that you get a message about 911 - if you meant to call 911 instead of 811, you needed to hangup and redial.

It was Friday evening, and obviously I couldn't call over the weekend since the offices were closed. Then, we came into a holiday on Monday! So, Tuesday morning, I called a little past 9am. The gal I talked with was so difficult to understand; she totally had a computer voice! Probably from taking so many of these "call before you dig" calls.

Drake Chinese Elm Tree Removal by Camden and Son Tree Service
Photo Taken : January 16, 2015

More Information on Call Before You Dig

If you Google, "call before you dig," you can find a number of sites such as the Jacksonville Electric Authority JEA which has a page devoted to calling before you dig. You can check the list of colors from The American Public Works Association (APWA) Uniform Color Codes for temporary marking of underground utilities. The color of red designates electric power lines, cables, conduit, and lighting cables. That was the color that graced the front, middle and side of my front yard!

After taking time to read the JEA page, I moved on to Sunshine 811. I put a call reminder into my Outlook for Tuesday morning.

Sunshine 811

On Tuesday mornning, when I called 811, it was about a ten minute call to share my "call before you dig" information. Almost instantaneously, when I hung up, I had received a confirmation email with all my information. The very next email I received was an AT&T alert email telling me I was near a fiber optic location. That was rather coincidental as I had called AT&T on Friday, after the tree removal, to schedule a rebury request.

On Saturday afternoon, an AT&T technician showed up. We talked a bit about the tree removal and stump grinding to be completed. He saw that my AT&T line was already exposed in its location right next to the stump perimeter. He began to pull up the line, probably a little too aggressively, as he took out a lot of my grass along the line. He then said he could complete the bury request and proceeded to bury the line more to the edge of my property.

Wednesday afternoon, around 2:30pm, Pete from the JEA stopped by to mark my yard. He walked around with his line finder a good bit, first checking the side easement. He wasn't seemingly locating the JEA power line. Next, he came over to the front easement and walked toward the stump. Bingo! He found a line that was running higher up in my front yard, well outside the normal front easement, parallel to the street. He marked that area with red and continued toward the stump.

OH NO! The next set of red markings were surely cause for some alert. It seems the JEA power line is located beneath the stump, almost to the middle of it. He followed the course to the house and on to the side where the meter is located. It was then obvious that the stump grinding would be difficult to accomplish.

JEA Red Markings identify power line location
Photo Taken : January 21, 2015

I peeked over Pete's shoulder to see the depth readings on his line finder. At the outside perimeter of the stump location, it read 2.5 ft. Right in front of the stump, where there is still a bit of a root ball, it was reading 3.0 ft. I asked Pete how he would proceed, and does the JEA remove stumps? He had said it can be done, but that you might want two people involved. And, he also suggested to possibly dig gingerly down to locate the line first.

I called Diane and left her a message about the findings. When I got home later that evening, I had a voice message from her saying that it wasn't worth somebody losing their life over the stump grinding.

At this writing, I have left two additional voice mails for Diane suggesting we not try grinding the stump, but that we have her crew bring the stump and roots to the ground level. She hasn't called me back, but I am extremely hopeful she will. I am not equipped to finish the job and I surely can't plant my sod before the stump is handled.

More Emails from Sunshine 811

The next email that I received from Sunshine 811 was a very short survey for first-time callers. I think that survey was a bit too brief in its data capture. Perhaps there will be another followup survey?

Not quite 48 hours after my initial call, I received a final response email that detailed all the utility respondents.

JACKSONVILLE ELECTRIC AUTHORITY: JEA-WSBU WATER - No Conflict - utility is outside of the requested work site
JACKSONVILLE ELECTRIC AUTHORITY: JEA-WSBU - SEWER - No Conflict - utility is outside of the requested work site
JACKSONVILLE ELECTRIC AUTHORITY - Marked
A T & T/ DISTRIBUTION - Clear No Facilities
COMCAST CABLE COMMUNICATIONS INC - Clear No Facilities

Sunshine 811 - Call Before You Dig - Response Status

I also opted to visit the site to check on the status of my call request. "The most up-to-date response status can always be gathered at http://www.online811.com/IRTHOneCall/ or by calling 1 - (800) 852 - 8057." By inputting my confirmation and phone numbers, I pulled up the same information. I was/am good to go.

HOA Approval

By the way! When Diane Camden showed up for the tree pruning, and ultimate removal, she asked, "Do you need HOA approval?" We talked about that and she offered that she didn't think my next door neighbor got such an approval prior to removing two large trees from the front of her house. After the tree was removed and Diane and her crew were gone, the two female neighbors came back over to talk with me. They wanted to know how much it cost! Their high number was $100 under my actual cost. "Well, that includes stump grinding, so I guess $475 is worth it." said the one neighbor.

I mentioned to the other neighbor, who is the president of our HOA, about the conversation about HOA approval. She wanted to know who said I needed approval; I said the tree lady brought it up. At that time, she didn't confirm I needed prior approval. It wasn't until Monday afternoon that I got an email with a copy of the ARC form to complete and return; after the fact!

What's Next?

I am on hold to finish beautifying my front yard until Camden and Son Tree Service return to level the stump. Gosh, I do hope they come back! It is a positive that I have more curb exposure for my home; but the stump looks a bit out of place. The exposure is good because this house is for sale!! Hello, Diane?

JEA Overcharges Customers for Services in Florida

Let me repeat that statement. JEA overcharges customers for services routinely! Who is the JEA? The JEA was previously known as Jacksonville Electric Authority, but now is more readily identified by just JEA.

JEA is of course located in Jacksonville, Florida. What I didn't readily know is that JEA "is the seventh largest community-owned electric utility company in the United States and largest in Florida." And, the numbers are important. According to Wikipedia, "as of 2009, JEA serves more than 417,000 electric customers, 305,000 water customers and 230,000 sewer customers."

Isn't that most curious that the number of sewer customer is so much less than the number of water customers? I don't get that stat.

Now to the overcharging! If you, like me, are a JEA customer who uses their water to irrigate your lawn and water your garden, you are being overcharged for services. The JEA takes a monthly water reading to bill its customers for water usage. However, they do not technically take a monthly sewer reading! That's where the overcharging is coming into play. JEA uses the reading from your "measured" water usage to bill the sewer service to match.

But! What if you are using that water for irrigation? If you don't have a separate meter for irrigation, you are being overcharged. Check out the images that follow.

Residential Water Service - 9/13/12-10/14/12 - Jacksonville, FL

Residential Sewer Service - 9/13/12-10/14/12 - Jacksonville, FL

Looking at these two images, Water Service and Sewer Service, you will note that the consumption matches, along with the current reading. Total consumption of water was reported at 2,000 gallons, which is twice the normal usage for me in a one-month period. My normal consumption is 1,000 gallons.

JEA is overcharging me by approximately 1000 gallons for the sewer charge -- that is water NOT going down the sewer, but going into my front and side lawn. That amounts to a minimum overcharge of some $16.36/month.

The next image shows a twelve-month cycle of water usage [and electric usage as well]. There have been three separate months of overcharging by the JEA for services. Matching the sewer consumption to the water consumption is technically an error in that the JEA is not taking into consideration the water being used for irrigation.

Residential Consumption History - 10/11-10/12 - Jacksonville, FL
Water and Electric Monthly Usage

In the consumption history, from October 2011 to October 2012, there are 10 months of usage for water service at 1,000 gallons. That is my normal consumption EXCEPT in those months that I need to irrigate the lawn. Three months of water consumption was doubled, at 2,000 gallons; March, September and October. In March, the application of Scott's Weed and Feed required extra irrigation, especially since there was a long period of dry weather. September and October water usage was double due to irrigation for new sod.

In the consumption history, JEA has overcharged me approximately $50.00 [3 x $16.36] for sewer usage.

In August 2012, I received a letter from my Home Owners Association telling me I had a lawn violation for bare spots! Those were bare spots that I caused by pulling out the crabgrass. To comply with the HOA requests, I put down nearly 80 pieces of sod. NO, that was not the size of the bare spots. To know me is to know that I am a bit of a perfectionist. After I had put down several pieces of sod to handle the bare spots, I got "carried away" and moved throughout the front lawn. I opted to be proactive in a number of spots where the grass would benefit from new sod.

And ... then I had to WATER that new sod! Thank goodness that we got a little bit of extra rain at the end of August! Otherwise, my September consumption may have been 3,000 gallons!!! Oh my!

After I laid all that sod, I moved on to do some other yard work! I've written two blog posts about my yard "garden" projects. You see, I had grass issues in a couple areas of my yard which would have required even MORE irrigation usage and JEA overcharges if I had elected to plant more sod. I elected to put in a drought-resistant garden instead! Read about it:

• Mexican Petunia Garden aka Purple Showers
• Mexican Petunia Garden aka Purple Showers Take Two

My neighbors tell me that if I put in another meter for irrigation water, that would take care of the "overcharging" for sewer. I was told that, at one time, an irrigation meter was only $600 to install; and that the fee was raised to $1,500. That is the catch; it costs a lot of money for a meter to measure true water usage!!! My neighbor says that's where they get you! It costs you MORE to put in a meter that would accurately measure the water consumption for irrigation purposes. So, it is rather a catch-22 situation.

The JEA "is the seventh largest community-owned electric utility company in the United States and largest in Florida."

• Total assets $7.5 billion (2010)
• Total equity $1.5 billion (2010) 

Bottomline, I am not the only customer the JEA is overcharging! I'm certain there are many other customers of the JEA who have only one water meter ... and also water their yards with the water that comes out of the faucet attached to the side of their homes!

Looking again at the number of JEA customers reported in 2009:

• 417,000 electric customers
• 305,000 water customers
• 230,000 sewer customers

These numbers do not tell us total number of individual customers such as myself who use electric, water, and sewer supplied by the JEA. $7.5 billion in total assets and $1.5 billion in total equity sounds like a lot of money! I'm sure the JEA could well afford to offer me a refund of approximately $50.00.

How about you? How much of a refund would you expect from the JEA for overcharged services?

UPDATE: September 2014 - So we JEA customers got notice that there would be a fuel surcharge rollback and we would see a credit on our July bills. Woohoo! I saw a credit of some whopping $12.00! Then, when I got my August bill, I nearly fell off my chair. That bill went up $60.00!!! It made me wonder if on one hand, we got a credit and then on the other hand, we got billed 5 times that credit to recoup the charges? I have still not recovered from that whopping big August 2014 bill -- the largest utility bill in all the 3+ years I have lived in my house.