At the Oct. 2 Utilities Commission meeting, Pat Henderson, a resident of 82 Fairway Drive, asked the commission to reduce a $1,818.19 water bill she received covering unusually high usage in December and January.
Henderson told commissioners she first received a high-usage notice in mid-December, learned high usage stopped on Dec. 20, and later found the water had been shut off at her condo. She said a plumber later replaced a float valve on an underused basement toilet and that her regular monthly bill under autopay is about $58.78.
The commission discussed the request but did not approve any refund or credit. A commission member said the body has “kind of a standing policy” that allows credits when water is lost on the ground outside, but not when water goes into the sewer via an indoor fixture because the water “goes down to sewer when it goes to the sewer plant.” In response to Henderson’s ask for mitigation, a commission member said, “There's really nothing we can do in this circumstance.”
Staff and commissioners noted the commission has seen similar cases before. A member reported, “We had 2 cases last utility commission where it's the same circumstance where the water was going through a toilet unknown.” Another member summarized that meter checks showed normal readings after the spike and that the running-toilet math can yield very large usage when it persists for weeks: “you consider it's continuously running 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week for several weeks… it actually consumes a very large amount of water.”
Henderson said she had corresponded with staff previously and had sent documentation to Tanner Sawyers in February. She told the commission she had been out of state during part of the period and that her daughter found a door notice indicating the water had been shut off. Henderson described the bill as “an unbelievably high water bill” and asked the commission for mitigation.
No formal motion to grant a credit or to alter billing was made or approved during the meeting. The commission instead documented the complaint on the record and reiterated the existing billing-adjustment approach for indoor sewered losses. Earlier in the meeting commissioners approved minutes from the Sept. 4 meeting and then moved on to other business.