An undetected water leak brings a costly lesson | Editorial
Katy Nyzio of Fort Lauderdale opened her city water bill and got the surprise of a lifetime.
The notice that arrived in April showed a past due amount of $15,539.20 for the use of nearly a million gallons of water in a one-month period (881,000 gallons, the bill said).
It was not a mistake, but Nyzio said she did not know what had happened.
Nyzio and her husband left New Jersey and moved to Fort Lauderdale two years ago and bought a single-family house in the city’s Harbour Inlet neighborhood, adjacent to a canal and with a view of the landmark Pier 66 hotel.
Nyzio’s irrigation water meter had to have been spinning wildly for a long time, the city said, but the insanely large leak went undetected. Did it drain into the canal?
Reeling from water-induced sticker shock, Nyzio contacted the city, but said she did not receive any official response for five months.
Officials attributed the delay to severe disruptions caused by the record flooding on April 12 that forced hundreds of employees to flee the flooded City Hall downtown. So, in other words, a water problem was not solved quickly on account of a much bigger water problem.
City records show that a city employee phoned Nyzio on April 4 to note her “high usage” of water.
As Nyzio explained to her neighbors on the Nextdoor social media channel, she contacted her sprinkler company, which found the leak, fixed it, and notified the city. The Nyzios paid for a replacement water meter.
The dreaded ‘leak letter’
She got what’s known as a “leak letter” from the city, which said in part: “A simple way to check for a leak is to stop using water, and then to observe the face of your water meter. Any movement on the face of the meter indicates a leak. The meter does not move if water is not going through it. If a leak is found and repaired, you may be eligible for credit.”
Fort Lauderdale Assistant City Manager Susan Grant said the city couldn’t just wipe away all of the exorbitant charges even if it wanted to because of bond covenants in the enterprise fund that supports the city’s water system.
Like many communities, Fort Lauderdale has a leak credit program. The city gave Nyzio a credit of $7,312.39, which left her with an unpaid balance of $6,997.30.
The city further agreed to extend Nyzio’s payment period from one year to three years, a very reasonable solution to this very wet mess. Nyzio said she appreciates the city’s response to this unexpected burden.
Water is the one commodity that has never been in short supply in Fort Lauderdale, the city long known as the “Venice of America” for its extensive 165-mile network of waterways.
To put Nyzio’s leak in perspective, the record 26-inch rainfall in April produced a staggering 88 billion gallons of rain in the space of about five hours, Mayor Dean Trantalis said in his annual State of the City address this week.
A better system
Over the next couple of years, Fort Lauderdale will replace all 65,000 water meters and will implement a new system known as Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI).
Using mobile technology, the city will be able to monitor water usage more closely, and residents will be able to access an online portal to track water usage and cost in real time. The new system isn’t cheap: The cost over a 20-year period is estimated at $67 million, but Grant said AMI will be a major improvement in tracking water use.
“We’re very excited about it,” Grant said.
The new system is designed to encourage customers to monitor their usage more closely. As a staff presentation to commissioners noted, “Complaints about high water bills are difficult to analyze.”
The moral of this story might be to check your water meter regularly, and to closely monitor your water consumption levels each month.
“I’m just really worried about this happening again,” Nyzio told us. “I’ll be manually checking our meter weekly to make sure we haven’t sprung any new leaks.”
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