And you thought your water bill was high…
One Baldwin Water Department customer was hit with a $32,842.80 bill after an “on and off” leak that resulted in the loss of over 1.5 million gallons of water.
Baldwin Chief Administrative Officer Emily Woodmaster informed the city council of the issue during their June 12 meeting. She asked the council to approve a leak adjustment to lower the homeowner’s bill.
According to Woodmaster, the leak had been a recurring problem since the ‘Big Freeze’ last December.
“This is the largest water loss amount we have ever seen on a residential account,” said Woodmaster.
From big freeze to big leak
The sub-freezing weather moved in on December 23, 2022, and did not lift until after the Christmas holiday, resulting in thousands of major leaks in homes and businesses across the area.
When the leak at the residence in question first occurred, no one was living there full-time. The customer lives outside the area.
Baldwin reads water meters a month behind. The customer didn’t know she had a leak until she went to pay her water bill online in February. At that time, her bill was over $2,000.
The customer fixed the leak and informed the city that it had been fixed. The city confirmed there were no leaks.
At that time, Woodmaster said she told the customer she wanted to wait another month to ensure her water usage was back to normal before moving forward with a leak adjustment. However, during that waiting period, another leak occurred, resulting in a $10,000 bill.
Since the customer did not live there full-time, Woodmaster said she encouraged the customer to turn off her meter until she could fix the leak. In April, the customer hired a company to find the leak on her property. Workers discovered the leak under the driveway. There was so much water it caused the driveway to collapse.
Change of policy
Now, after six months, the leak is fixed, and the customer’s water is off, said Woodmaster, but there are still tens of thousands of dollars in water bills left to be dealt with.
The council must decide how to handle those charges.
The adjustment for a normal leak would result in a $25,000 bill. However, Woodmaster said the city should have cut off the water on March 7 when meter readers first discovered a second high-usage leak.
Under the previous policy, Baldwin required water customers to report leaks to the city and ask to have their water turned off. Meter readers were not allowed to turn off the water, even when they detected major leaks. Now they can because Baldwin adjusted its policy as a result of this unusual – and costly – situation.
Billing options
Woodmaster gave the council several options to consider regarding a leak adjustment.
The first option is for the council to write off the entire amount on the account.
The second option is to charge the customer their normal rate for the first 4,000 gallons for each month and charge the remaining gallons at the wholesale rate of $2.70 per thousand gallons. This option would result in a bill of $4,233.63, not including any payments received to date.
The third option is to deduct the 782,000 gallons that were lost in the second leak when the city failed to turn off the water. The Council would charge the remaining 725,152 gallons at the industrial rate, resulting in a $1,957.91 bill.
The customer will have to wait a while longer to find out how much she’ll have to pay. Councilmembers tabled the issue until their end-of-the-month meeting on Monday, June 26.
