CHESAPEAKE, Va. — Another Chesapeake family is feeling blindsided after opening their mailbox to a more than $5,000 water bill.
Just last week, 13News Now reported on a family trying to figure out how to pay a $7,000 bill.
“Hard to swallow when we opened that bill,” said Chesapeake resident Vici Thomas. “I don’t think we use that much water, honestly. It is a fight to get my children to take showers most days."
Thomas’ family of five lives in Chesapeake. She said they searched high and low for a leak after getting the $5,233 bill and couldn't find one.
“We don’t want anyone to have to cut us a check for $7,000 or $1,000 or $800, whatever it may be,” said Chesapeake Public Utilities Director David Jurgens.
Jurgens said the city serves more than 200,000 people through 70,000 accounts. He said the water meters are pretty accurate.
“I am not going to tell you we read every one perfect, that’s not true, but we have a good quality control system in place to read every meter,” Jurgens said.
Jurgens said households can also have unknown leaks or mistakes in water usage. He said toilet leaks are the most common.
“You could lose a gallon a minute and therefore losing 14,000 gallons a day,” Jurgens said. “So, in four days, it is a full month’s worth of water. In four days, it can double your water bill for a monthly bill.”
If someone’s bill is higher than usual, he said to give the utility department a call. He said his crews can try several checks and balances, like looking at the meter, testing toilets, bill adjustments, and even payment plans.
“It all starts with a phone call,” Jurgens said. “We talk to the customer then and we will go through discussions on what could have caused the water bill to be high.”
Thomas said a utility crew replaced her meter this week. She’s hoping to see the $5,000 bill disappear.
“A bill like this is not realistic for us,” Thomas said.
Jurgens also said he hopes to see the city transition to monthly billing instead of bi-monthly billing in the future. He said over the next few years, they want to install radio read meters, so crews don’t manually have to check each individual meter.
Anyone with water bill questions or concerns in Chesapeake is asked to call the public utilities customer service line at 757-382-6352.