City of Hamilton, Ohio - Utilities Facts & Tips

Helpful Facts & Tips

Lawn Watering
According to the Co-op Extension of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, it is necessary to sprinkle your yard at seven day to ten day intervals, when rainfall is insufficient to replace water loss. It is recommended that you water infrequently and deeply to a soil depth of six to eight inches. Light watering produces a shallow-rooted turf because grass roots do not penetrate dry soil layers below. Frequent watering produces greater disease and overall reduction in grass and quality. Morning or midday water is preferred for home lawns to minimize disease activity because water remains on the leaf surface for only a short time.

Summer Discounts for Lawn Watering
Like everyone else, Hamilton residents use more water during the summer months. Much of this is not charged into the collection system. To account for the water not being discharged to the wastewater system, during the summer period, single family residential customers are given a credit on their May through September sewer bills, for any month that the water use exceeds 150% of the average monthly water consumption during the preceding October through April Period.

For those months when the City is scheduled to do an actual meter reading during the May through September period, sewer charges for water used in excess of the cap will not be billed. It is automatic, and there is nothing extra the residential customer must do.

For those months when the City is not scheduled to conduct an actual meter reading (i.e. every other month) during the May thru September period, the customer will not receive the credit unless they call 785.7100 and select option 2 to leave their water meter reading. A message on the customer’s bill indicates the date by which the customer must make that call.

Before you dig
If you are planning to add additional trees, shrubs etc or replace existing land space please call Toll Free OUPS at
1.800.362.2764 a few days in advance so we can mark the location of any underground utilities in those areas. This is a free service. It could be very costly if you didn't call before you dig and came in contact with an underground service.

Meter Reading - how to read your own meter
There are occasions such as weather or access problems when our Meter readers are unable to read your meters. If this occurs you have the option to phone in reads at 868-5895 or return the meter reading card left on your door within the 2 days. If we don't receive the information we will have to estimate your usage.

The number of dials on your meter may be different than this example, however the dials all read the same way.

Starting from left to right--

1st dial reads 4 even though the indicator is on the line closer to 5 because the indicator on the second dial has not passed zero
2nd dial reads 9 because the third indicator dial has not passed zero
3rd dial reads 9 because the indicator on the fourth dial has not passed zero
4th dial reads 9

The correct read for this meter is 4999. If the previous read was 4872 then the usage would be the difference between the two or 127 units.

If you are going to mail in the card left by the Meter Reader, then please mark the location of the dial indicators on the card as you see them from the meter dials.