By ALEX GREGOR
DavidsonNews.net

CORNELIUS - Residents of Davidson, Cornelius, and other parts of north Mecklenburg County gathered at Cornelius Town Hall Wednesday in hopes that representatives of Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities (CMU) could answer questions about unusually high water bills and erratic water meter readings. CMU officials offered no general explanations, but pledged to continue working with homeowners to resolve any problems.

The homeowners association in the Peninsula neighborhood of Cornelius and Cornelius mayor Jeff Tarte helped to organize the meeting in response to complaints from homeowners.

“I live alone. There’s no way I could be using all of this water. We’re convinced that my house and my property is not the cause of this. I think the cause is these meters.”

Kay Elliotte,
River Run resident

One Peninsula resident asked CMU Director Doug Bean if he thought the issue was a problem with individual homes, the meters, or with CMU’s infrastructure and operations.

“I don’t know,” Mr. Bean said. “I understand that it’s insulting when bills are [inaccurate] and we say, ‘Go check your toilet.’ It is insulting. So we need to change our communications.” He also noted that “our [CMU’s] responsibility to you is two things: To be sure the meter is working when it gets to you and to provide education that would help you all reduce your water consumption.”

More than a dozen homeowners also shared frustrations about their water bills. After a lengthy question and answer session, Mr. Bean told the crowd: “If I had a magic wand, we’d wave the magic wand and [fix the problem].”

BILLING COMPLAINTS

Residents throughout Mecklenburg County have complained that they are receiving steep bills from CMU, even when plumbers have told them that they have no leaks or other apparent problems at their homes. The average monthly water bill for Mecklenburg County is $45. Some homeowners have received bills for as much as $350 per month.

While water bills have spiked in recent months for many at last night’s meeting, a handful of people said that they have had problems with billing and metering for several years.

Opening the meeting, CMU Assistant Director Denise Foreman assured a frustrated and vocal crowd that “in the wintertime, we get a lot of people calling about high bills. It’s not unusual.” She explained that CMU had investigated 32 claims of high water bills in the Peninsula. CMU found water meters were working properly at 31, she said.

Ms. Foreman speculated that in the Peninsula and other locations, puzzling water bills might be attributed in part to a confusing billing system, citing the 30-day delay between the date of a meter reading and the date when bills arrive. She also noted that CMU was working with homeowners on an individual basis to resolve any problems, and that CMU has followed up on eight of the 32 complaints in the Peninsula.

Steve Miller, customer service manager for CMU, said that in response to the high number of complaints throughout the county, CMU brought one meter from an affected house back into its shop for testing. CMU found that the meter was working within specifications.

Mr. Miller explained the mechanics of the water meters that CMU has installed on houses throughout the county. The meters feature a wireless electronic transponder that allows CMU technicians to take readings of the meter from remote locations using a digital, handheld device. CMU periodically crosschecks the values from the electronic reader with the number value on the face of each house’s water meter, he said.

METER TROUBLE?

Neither Ms. Foreman nor Mr. Miller attributed the billing problems to the meters or CMU’s infrastructure. They said different households may have different problems and will have to be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

Most homeowners who attended the meeting were quick to blame the meters.

One Cornelius resident said her water bills don’t make much sense. Looking over a recent bill, she and her husband said it showed their house used 29 ccfs of water (1 ccf=100 cubic feet) during a week when their house was unoccupied. The following week, when both were home, they used only 2 ccfs. They weren’t irrigating their property either week and a plumber had found no leaks.

Metering like this leads to puzzling water bills. “In less than 90 days, we have paid CMU over $1000,” the woman said, noting that a neighbor pays CMU an average of $30 per month. “So in less than 90 days, we have paid what our neighbor pays in two and a half years.”

Her story was typical for many at the meeting. Several people said they had received water bills identical to their neighbors’ – sometimes for several months running.

After comments from Ms. Foreman and Mr. Miller, CMU Director Bean took questions from an audience that grew increasingly testy over the next two hours.

Meredith Fite, who lives by the 18th hole of the Peninsula Golf Club, told Mr. Bean, “I’d like to dig a hole in my front yard, put a meter on it, and run my water through it.” She said that in three months, she would like to compare her reading to CMU’s reading. “When we do that, how fast will you give me my money back?” she asked.

Mrs. Fite also said that she had watched CMU technicians take a remote reading of her water meter from their vehicle, then hang a notification on her front door without crosschecking the electronic reading against the meter itself. The notification said that the two readings matched.

Mr. Bean apologized, saying, “If our technicians were slacking, I am sorry. I guarantee you someone will come out, with you there, lift that meter open, and see if it is working properly.” He said he sees no need for homeowners or CMU to install parallel meters, but that CMU could run additional tests at people’s homes to determine the cause of incorrect billing.

RIVER RUN ISSUES

Davidson resident Kay Elliotte, who lives in the Village section of River Run neighborhood, has documented her water usage and bills since 2006 with the help of her neighbor Robert Wenderlich, a former engineer for Ingersoll-Rand. She and Mr. Wenderlich displayed a graph of water use at her house.

“I have tried to figure out in very good faith, is it my problem?” Mrs. Elliotte told DavidsonNews.net. “I live alone. There’s no way I could be using all of this water. We’re convinced that my house and my property is not the cause of this. I think the cause is these meters.”

Mrs. Elliotte said that every time she has complained, something has been done about the meter—and her water bills have gone down. “Whatever the problem is, it just keeps reoccurring,” she said. “It gets solved for awhile and then it just keeps reoccurring.”

TASK FORCE

Mr. Bean said CMU has heard what resident are saying. “We want people to have good customer service and to feel good about what they’re paying for it. You have our attention. We’re going to work on this. And we’re going to do the best that we can. Nobody wants to solve this issue more than we do,” he said.

Mr. Bean explained that CMU is financially self-sustaining and that it has to meet its expenses with revenues from what it charges homeowners for their water use. But he was adamant that CMU was not making trying to profit by billing people unfairly. He also promised that CMU would be happy to grant reimbursements for incorrect billing as soon as CMU can determine where such credits are due.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Cornelius Mayor Jeff Tarte helped to organize a group of homeowners to continue working with CMU, as well as the mayors’ offices in Davidson and Huntersville. The group will include homeowners from the Peninsula and other neighborhoods who will help CMU develop a way to pinpoint whatever is causing inaccuracies in metering and billing.

“We’ll come up with a methodology,” promised Mayor Tarte, who is among those who have had billing complaints. “We’re going to stay after it and we’ll communicate until we understand why the numbers are what they are. We do need to stay in communications and share information to get to the bottom of it.”

Mayor Tarte said a solution would likely have to wait until 2010, as families and local government are busy with the holiday season.

Have questions?

Homeowners who have questions about water bills may call Charlotte Mecklenburg Utilities at 704-336-7600, or visit www.cmutilities.com.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE
Dec. 4, 2009, DavidsonNews.net, “Wednesday meeting seeks answers on high water bills.”