Chesapeake residents see higher water bills; city explains why
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — Some Chesapeake residents are seeing their water bills come in significantly higher than normal.
Some are being charged hundreds more than usual while others are seeing water bills go into the thousands. This started happening after Chesapeake switched to new water meters, new billing software and lost a handful of key workers. Their public utilities director said the city is partially to blame for the higher bills, but they believe other outside factors could be playing a role.
The Cherry family usually gets bi-monthly water bills hovering above $200. Their past few bills became more lengthy under the new system.
“They made it very complicated,” Anthony Cherry said.
Their most recent bill is about twice the price. They had to pay more than $500.
“Trying to budget — how can you budget when they’re doubling your bill,” Cherry said.
Many of their neighbors are seeing similar surges on their bills. 10 On Your Side is getting inundated with phone calls and emails from people saying they are being overcharged. Public Utilities Director David Jurgens said that the sudden increases are happening to many of his customers. Jurgens acknowledged many are facing price tags hundreds of dollars higher than normal.
“It was more than we expected,” Jurgens said. “Honestly, we didn’t know it was happening until it was happening, and then we were in it.”
Last fall, they changed the rate tiers for each billing period, charging $4.25 for the first ten CCF units. Each unit is 748 gallons. After the first ten units, the price increases to $9.06 per unit. It happened as their staff became faced with learning the new billing software. On top of this, three of their seven meter readers left the team for a variety of reasons, some medical. This led to a longer billing period since the team fell behind, and caused customers to get charged the higher unit amount for a larger period of time than normal.
“I totally regret that this occurred,” Jurgens said. “Hindsight, there are some things I would have done differently because we’ve learned lessons out of it. We’re not trying to scam anybody. We wouldn’t do that. We live here. These are our friends and neighbors.”
Jurgens admitted that some of the blame rests on them. His team is adjusting course, ensuring the extended billing periods don’t happen again. He also told 10 On Your Side that they found out some of the more extreme cases of higher bills were also caused by leaks.
His go-to example sits on his desk, an old water pipe with a tiny hole. It is enough to cause a more than $12,000 up-charge.
“If this happened with a customer who, at the same time, had a leak in their pipe, that means that that leak went on for longer than normal, which made it worse,” Jurgens said.
Still, they want to make up for the confusion. Jurgens said they are now rolling out refunds to any account hit by this problem at the end of last year. Most can expect to get back around $10. They are still calculating more refunds for anyone nabbed by this after the new year. The next several billing periods will also be shorter.
Cherry and many others living in Chesapeake hope the city does not let this happen again.
“Be reasonable,” Cherry said. “Doubling a bill like that in the same water consumption … That can’t work. That’s unreasonable.”
Jurgens encouraged anyone in Chesapeake with high water bill to call the city and reach out to him directly.
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