Inflated Water Bills in Durham, North Carolina

We have been at our address for 6+ years and our water bills have been inaccurate. There are 2 adults and 2 young girls here. We don't water the lawns or maintain a garden and we use bottled water for cooking and drinking. Despite this our water bills are excessive. 3 times in the past 6 years we received bills that claimed we used over 4500 cubic feet of water. The last time was a few months ago and the bill was for over $700.00! During better months we are billed $250.00-$300.00. It's almost like paying a second housing rent some months.

My neighbors report that their bills are usually a little over $100.00. My husband had Al Nelson from the Durham water conservation department look into it. He had our meter changed, then had it upgraded to an electronic meter to track usage better. He could find no leaks and no real explanation but says something isn't right. He said our usage was showing 6 times what is average for a family of our size--it's not like we are running a bottled water business out of our kitchen. He said billing should have got him involved a long time ago and he's stumped by the numbers.

I was further upset after doing the math. They are claiming we used 4500+ cubic feet, that's 33,000 gallons in 61 days. That's 550+ gallons every day! That would mean we were using 20+ gallons of water every hour, every day, for 2 months.

This is ridiculous.The bureaucracy here is a barrier to justice and fair treatment. No NC state senators or representatives have acknowledged my complaints. The billing department acts like we're just whining about our bill, the County Commissioners ignored our phone calls and subsequent emails, and the city manager Tom Bonfield referred me back to the water department. I feel sure that either our fittings have been incorrect or our meter has been malfunctioning. Either way we don't use hundreds of gallons of water daily, Durham doesn't care, and we've been overcharged by thousands over the past six years. This issue is widespread according to the news (including Atlanta, Charlotte and Philadelphia) and it is wrong that there is no oversight agency that can check for inaccuracies--if something is awry with a bill you typically have no recourse. When the city council (such as in Durham, NC) won't intervene there is no recourse--our state lawmakers owe it to us to create an oversight agency or to provide some other way of dealing with false bills!

If anyone else in Durham is experiencing inflated usage claims please post a comment or email us at trish8698@aol.com

Thanks, Patricia Ladensack