UNION COUNTY, N.C. — Denise Lewis admits her family of seven uses their share of water.
She says their bill is usually in the $200 range, but then they got a bill for $367.
“It was a huge shock,” she said. “I am outraged.”
She says they hadn’t changed any of their routine like showering more or watering the lawn more.
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She complained to Union County Water and said the utility told them to check for leaks and to see if the toilets were running. She says they didn’t find any problems. “They told us to take dye and put [it] in the toilets. We did that. Nothing happened,” she said.
Another person in Indian Trail says his bill went from $60 to $150 in one month. He says he lives alone and wasn’t even home for 16 of those days.
The comments flowed on social media about it too, including recommendations to contact Action 9.
“I don’t want to see it happen again,” Lewis said.
Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke emailed Union County for her. The utility emailed back saying that the billing period for that $300+ bill was 32 days, which is more days than usual. It didn’t refund any money, but fortunately, for some reason the Lewises don’t know, their latest bill was back in $200s.
Union County emailed Stoogenke saying there’s no problem with the system or computer glitch, and that nothing’s changed.
“We do typically see a spike in usage across our service area in the fall due to a few known reasons, including the holidays when many people spend more time at home and have overnight houseguests. We also know that many customers do seasonal yard work in the fall – particularly with seeding their lawns – which can involve significant irrigation or outdoor water use. The seasonal increase in water usage is not limited to our customers in Indian Trail,” a spokesperson said.
“Based on our experience, the cause of unusually high water bills is almost always an issue on the customer’s side of the meter, such as an unidentified leak in their home, malfunctioning toilet or significant use. Per the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the average household leak can account for nearly 10,000 gallons of water wasted every year; EPA also estimates that 10% of homes have leaks that waste 90 gallons or more per day. Unfortunately, once water runs through the meter to the customer’s side of the water line, Union County Water can do little more than speculate as to the cause of the increase in usage,” the utility added.
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There may be some hope for the future -- the utility is in the process of installing new technology on customers’ meters. You can see how much water you use in real time. That way, you can catch changes in usage, leaks, and other issues without having to wait for your bill. You can even set alerts for high usage. This is a long-term project and there is no timeline for when everyone will have the new tech.
If you live in Union County and have a billing question call 704-296-4210 or email water@unioncountync.gov.
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