$11,000 Water Bill

[aczlan]

I'm on rural water here. It covers a big area, water mains, a water tower and all.

Yes. Around here there's been a push with grant money available from the state to make town water available to more people.
There are also a fair number of people who have wells that have issues with hard water, sulfur, and high iron. Those people are very happy to be able to get on town water.

Aaron Z

 

[dragoneggs]

This thread has now been summarized in article format for easy reading: Leaking Pipe Leads to Insane $11,000 Water Bill | TractorByNet.com

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[turnkey4099]

So it's a town water supply? or one big well and holding tank supplying multiple homes??

Sounds more like a neighborhood than "rural"

Hope they have natural gas like that too! HEck we can't even get high speed internet

I have a house in very rual famrland. It was one of four in a half mile radius on a community well. Now only two of us remain and I drilled my own to get off of being the unpaid 'well fixer'. Still do maintain a connection to the neighbor for use if one of our wells needs some fixing. Both of us had used that interconnect, nice to have a backup.

 

[Cord]

I really need some assistance. My wife recently received two bills from the water company totaling $11,000!!!! We immediately called.our builder and he sent out a guy to figure out what's going on. He found the leak and replaced the pipe, but the hole in the pipe makes no sense to me. It almost looks melted. Has anyone ever seen something like this before? Builder is saying it's a freak accident and that the pipe must have rubbed against a rock. I'm not buying it - first off we have sand for soil, next, the hole isn't at all jagged.

I'm currently deployed to Iraq and this is just causing tremendous stress on my wife and I. The water company is saying that around 2 million gallons leaked in a month (around 50 gpm). Can anyone help me make sense of this????

Thanks in advance,

JustinTapatalk Cloud - Downlaoad File Screenshot_217-5-13-2-53-17.png
Tapatalk Cloud - Downlaoad File Screenshot_217-5-13-2-53-28.png

I'll start off by saying that I haven't read all the posts. I will say that as an Architect, this isn't the first time that I've seen this. The good news is that the problem is common enough that the water utility will have a procedure in place to address it. The critical thing is that the water didn't go into the sanitary system. It costs dramatically more to treat the sewage than to supply potable water. Hopefully your builder documented the location of the repair. If you can prove the leak was underground then you will be successful in getting your water bill reduced. You will still need to pay for the water that leaked out, but the bill will go from $11,000 to maybe $500. After that, I'd turn to the builder's plumber to have him pay the difference between the normal water usage and the usage caused by the plumbers leak. Call the local utility and get the forms that you'll need to fill out, send them the supporting documentation and stand back while the wheels of government grind.

 

[newbury]

I'll start off by saying that I haven't read all the posts.

If you had you would have read it was happily resolved.

 

[Cord]

With 15 additional pages of people not adding anything constructive?

 

[justinramani]

My wife saw them working on the line replacement today. Looks like they aren't using roll pipe after all. She sent me a few pictures. Looks like SDR21 200psi. It's hard to tell, but it looks like it might be gasketed pipe.

 

[justinramani]

 

[dragoneggs]

My wife saw them working on the line replacement today. Looks like they aren't using roll pipe after all. She sent me a few pictures. Looks like SDR21 200psi. It's hard to tell, but it looks like it might be gasketed pipe.

View attachment 511737

I'm no expert but it does look like gasketed pipe based on color. Good to see the progress report. Keep us posted.

 

[justinramani]

Hopefully this is the last time we ever have to deal with this water line.