Rusted EMT in ground

[Don Power]

I have a customer who contacted me about water getting into their electrical panel. They live in a townhouse row which consists of nine other units. The meters for all ten units are on the end of the 1st unit. When the units were built (1980's) EMT was used to feed each townhouse. The EMT was buried in front of the units. Apparently the water is getting into the conduit and eventually into the panel. I told the owner there may be a more dangerous problem, if the EMT is badly rusted there may be danger of losing the bond. There is no bonding conductor pulled into the EMT. Is there any accurate test which can be performed to test the resistance of the EMT from the meter bank to the townhouse? This distance is approx. 250'. Does anyone think I'm over reacting? The rusting could be a problem with all the units. I told him to check with his neighbors to see if anyone else has a water leaking problem.

 

[quogueelectric]

The emt has got to be replaced anything less than that will bring you into liability if someone gets hurt.
I would write a registered letter to the townhouse assn advising them of the problem and if they chose to ignore it it becomes thier problem. Try to be sensitive about the problem and it might land you a nice job rewiring all the feeders with the assn.
Somehow you have to get them to acknowledge that you told them of the problem maybe as simple as a hidden camera with audio or a nonbiased witness.
You could just say I dont see anything but thats not the right thing to do you have 10 families counting on you. Do the right thing and I hope you get the job.
Remember it is not your fault the original contractor did the wrong job get paid good money to fix it.

 

[infinity]

Are these feeders or service entrance conductors to each unit? If the EMT contains service entrance conductors the grounded conductor would be used for bonding purposes. In that case the EMT is just there to protect the conductors and would not be used for any bonding purposes. If so it would have to be determined as to whether or not the protection normally provided by the EMT is compromised. If not, the rust isn't really hurting anything.