I always was taught it's about the AMPS, not the voltage, remember the tesla rule,!! or 5 milliamps.

Dear Sir; I am a street light technician from the City Of Philadelphia Pa.We also had a stray voltage problem at the 1900 blk. of South Street . We too were alerted to this problem by a pet owner that said her dog would actually sit down and refuse to move if she tried to walk along this block to go home.. What we found was a pole where the bug was rubbing against the pole and had worn through the tape just enough to make the pole hot . It was not anywhere near line voltage but enough to apparently give the dog a slight shock.After retapeing the bug all is well .The owners dog now does go down that block now . In this case it was a good ending to this story.. From what I am reading through these posts it seems like a much more a wide spread problem..

Ah yes, we have "113 volts being given off" and voltage "spewing to ground" at a light pole. I enjoy the excellent use of the technical words in these situations. Makes me really trust those making these obsverations conducting the tests; they obviously are skilled and competant, and really understand the various aspects of electricty. Now I ask you, where was Tesla and Edison when we needed them.

Is it no wonder that the general public hunts for the nearest lawyer when they feel the most remote tingle....can't be the "Saturday electrican" doesn't understand the difference between the "green" and the "white" wire.

wlr

These conditions exist and will continue to present hazards to the general public. You can test all you want but changes do occur and the only way to logically address this is through monitoring, detection, notification and resolution

If a company, or any entity, were discovered to be polluting the waterways due to some break or malfunction of equipment such as effluent leaking directly into the river, would they be compelled to make repairs and make it "safe"? Government, whether local, state, etc. is paid to provide taxpayers with services that should be "safe", and utilities get paid by customers to provide service that is deemed "safe". Repair or maintenance of "unsafe" services has already been paid for, just needs to be done, and properly budgeted; perhaps profits will be affected because of necessary repairs. I applaud your effort to do the right thing!

This will go on like many other hazards. It will be ignored until the news media picks it up. Then there will be severial law suits costing millions. They will then argue who owns what and point fingers at each other. Mean while the hazard will still exist.

Everything I've read about describes "short circuits". The term stray voltage is misused.

As electricians, our sole purpose is - "Electron Flow Control and Containment." This results in a safe reliable electrical system.

Not all short circuits result in the activation of a short-circuit over-current device..

I'm not saying stray voltage conditions don't exist, just that a light pole with a voltage potential of 113 volts is a short circuit, no matter who owns it.

Not withstanding any safety concerns who is going to pay for all of this? This is some serious safety stuff especially when it is out in front of the general public to touch. Many years ago my company did some testing on metalic items along a new brick covered walkway. This was brought on by the fact that I was waiting in line to get into a popular dinner establishment and got tired after a hard day at work so I leaned on a lamp post. As I moved away from the lamp post my hand brushed across it and did I get a wake up call of about 112 volts.

The local AHJ at the time did not consider it a problem plus he worked for the city where it happened. Guess what five years later I was the AHJ and went around testing various metalic devices along the street. Wow never new there could be so many problems but the city still did not want to spend the money to get it fixed.

I got the local news involved and citizens came out of the wood work filing complaints and finally the items were repaired. Needless to say I was let go from my job shortly there after. I guess I caused a rather large expense for the city and they wanted me to move on so as to find nothing else that would cost them money. I would do it over again if I had the chance. I figure if you are not allowed or cannot do your job properly it is best to leave the job. There are many hot spots all around major citys and something should be done. I consider it a life safety issue.