3 Day Notices
DEP (Department Of Environmental Protection) will issue a three day notice when they know that your main water line is leaking. What this means for a property owner is that they must repair the line in order to avoid any additional violation or fines.
DEP has several ways to determine if your property has a leak. One way is visually: they can see a leak forming on the sidewalk or roadway. Another way is if a property owner reports low water pressure in the home or DEP can see in their system that the water meter is reading dramatically low in their readings. Low water pressure is a big indication of a leak on the main water service. DEP determines the leak is coming from your pipe by using a listening device to hear the leak from the inside of your property.
After determining that it is in fact your property that is causing the leak, they will issue this notice.
10 Day Notices
A ten day notice is a notice usually issued after DEP has already shut off a homeowner’s water service. A homeowner can have their water shut off for a few reasons. The main reason being the water is leaking so bad that it is causing a hazardous situation and cannot stay on. Another reason would be failure to respond to a 3 day notice. DEP notices should be taken seriously and can result in a bigger headache for you if not taken care of in a timely manner.
Keep in mind when DEP turns off your water you should expect a 500$-1000$ charge appear on a future water bill for their fee for shutting off the water.
Cease and desist DEP usually issues a cease and desist for any type of issue that is not up to code. When it comes to a sewer DEP will issue these for several reasons. The most common is a defective sewer line. Defective meaning broken or collapsed. The order is given to home owners with defective sewers to repair the issue so that no further problems arise.
A home owner might ask themselves: “How can DEP know if I have a broken sewer?” There are many visual factors that can point to a broken sewer line. The most common one is going to be a pothole or caving in the street or on a property.