Utility Easment

I had a weird and unsettling experience today. Our utilities are underground and are about 40 years old. The underground power lines are in shabby shape according to the technicians who repair them frequently and I complained about this to Duke Energy HQ about 5 years ago only to be given some BS by corporate HQ that the lines were just fine. Fast forward to this past week. Someone dropped by while I was out and left a message that they would be upgrading these lines soon and that there would be some work in the yard. Yippee great news! I assumed the actual power company would simply be pulling the new cables out behind the old cables in this sandy soil.

Well today a crew arrives, two guys I assume are Mexican and cannot speak English along with a Jamaican guy. Between the three of them I can't communicate what and when they will be doing, tell them where my sprinkler heads are etc. So I ask for the "Chief" to come see me. Within an hour I now have 8 Mexican guys (who cannot speak English) in my yard digging holes everywhere. (They are doing missile boring) Unfortunately none of the holes are inside the platted utility easement. They are halfway up to my pool enclosure. No "Chief" in sight. I try to explain to the crew that a 6 foot easement is what they need to work within. No comprende'.

So I call the number on the card, and three phone calls later I have a guy that speaks English on the way. Meanwhile the digging continues. "Steve" arrives, clearly he is a Gringo and should understand utility easements and the concept of encroachment. I had to argue with him for 10 minutes while he is trying to tell me company policy is to dig 2 feet from the existing line and I am telling him STOP WORK. Finally he agrees to dig on the (neighbors) fence side of the red paint marking the existing cable.

From the discussion back and forth, it is clear the company he works for is a subcontractor and is paying the crew hourly for this work. Steve tells them they will get paid another three hours to redo the dig along the fence line. (At least one of the guys understood his English at that point.)

This could have gone a lot quicker and smoother had "Steve" come to see me before dispatching the crew.

Is this really how business is done in the utilities? I am pretty sure I am on firm legal ground here, not to mention the safety issue of high voltage wires being run outside the platted easement.

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Utility Easment