Keep Your Water Meter Accessible

Our staff reads your meter every month or two months, depending on your account type. Please keep your meter accessible so our staff can quickly read your meter on the first visit to your property. If your meter is obstructed, a meter reader will have to return to your property to clear the obstruction and read your meter. You will be charged for this return visit. By keeping your meter box clear, you can avoid this charge. Additionally, a clear box makes it easy to ensure that the lid fits properly, is safe and can be quickly turned off in an emergency. See examples to the right of both obstructed and unobstructed meters as well as tips on how to keep your meter accessible.

Trees, bushes and plantings

  • Trim bushes, trees, and grass that block the way or cover the meter. During the growing season, plants can cover a water meter box very quickly.
  • Please minimize plants in the area which meter readers must travel to get to your meter. We would like to avoid any accidental damage to your prized plantings.

Pets

  • Keep pets away from the path that leads to your meter.
  • If you have a guard dog for security, please let us know so that we can make sure that our meter readers and other utility personnel are aware of this.
  • We may ask that you arrange to confine the dog during the day that your meter will be read.

Objects that cover or block your meter

  • Please make sure that no objects cover or block access to the meter box. Items we have found blocking water meters include cars, trailers, garbage cans and recycling bins, construction equipment or supplies, landscape bark or gravel.

Locked gates

  • If your meter is located behind a gate that is normally kept locked, please contact us to arrange access. We often obtain keys from customers who wish to secure their property. And, as long as the lock is accessible from the exterior of the gate, this presents little problem for our meter readers’ access.

Your address

  • Please ensure your house address is clearly displayed on your residence.
  • This also assists emergency personnel who may need to find your home in a hurry.

Public Utilities

Andrew Lee, General Manager and CEO
Address: 700 5th Avenue, Suite 4900, Seattle, WA, 98104
Mailing Address: PO Box 34018, Seattle, WA, 98124-5177
Phone: (206) 684-3000
SPUCustomerService@seattle.gov

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Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is comprised of three major direct-service providing utilities: the Water Utility, the Drainage and Wastewater Utility, and the Solid Waste Utility.