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ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — The St. Petersburg City Council is taking steps Thursday morning to address concerns over what some are calling outrageously high water bills.
Some homeowners said they were billed thousands of dollars despite being on vacation.
People are frustrated as some of their water bills are going from a couple hundred dollars to over $1,000. Residents who have skyrocketing water bills are shocked when they look at their banks account to see how much they are paying for their water.
“I didn’t find out about the high bill until it was deducted from my account,” said St. Pete resident, David Kuoch.
The bills are starting to pile up on homeowners.
“First high water bill was three Fridays ago when I opened the mail, and it was $725,” said Susan Gagle.
“So, the first one was $2,400, so that was the period right after the hurricane from 10-7 to 11-7. Then I got another one for $2,500 and then the following month, $2,100,” Kuoch said.
The question on everyone’s mind is, why this is happening?
“The numbers just don’t make sense. Why would they skyrocket out of nowhere with just no reason behind it. It just doesn’t make sense and if something doesn’t make sense, you need to dig into it,” Gagle said.
Earlier in February, the city put a freeze on all late fees and shut offs.
On Thursday morning, the council will receive a presentation explaining the reasons for these high bills. The reasons listed are if you have a leak on your property, and the rest of the reasons have to do with estimated reads on meters.
The presentation also listed solutions, like wanting more flexibility with city code to provide more relief to the residents, having more digital meters, and proceeding with advanced metering infrastructure.
Some homeowners still cannot believe how much this is impacting their wallets.
“The old saying goes, if there’s smoke, there’s fire. So obviously from my perspective and the data says, there’s a problem, right? You can’t just go from $200 to $2,000 overnight,” Kuoch said.
For more on the presentation, click here.
