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CHICAGO (CBS) — For years. The CBS 2 Investigators have been digging into inexplicably bloated water payments as a part of our “Getting Hosed” sequence.
However what if there have been a solution to get warnings about excessive water utilization earlier than the invoice arrived within the mail? CBS 2 Investigator Megan Hickey discovered a doable repair out east.
In Chicago, town’s Division of Water Administration stated they do have warnings once they discover constantly working meters – however not one of the prospects to whom we have talked acquired any such warnings.
We’re asking if there’s a greater resolution — and Washington, D.C. may need it.
For 4 years, we have been monitoring outrageous water payments. Final month, we talked to Jazmin Juarez – who acquired a invoice for $64,528.52 water invoice within the mail.
Town claimed she used an unfathomable 6 million gallons in simply two months.
“They informed me to rent an excellent lawyer — that that is most likely only a billing problem with town,” Juarez stated.
Final week, we talked to Jonathan Seezox – who has been combating a thriller $10,000 water invoice for 924,000 gallons price of water for greater than a yr.
“When a invoice goes from $50 to $10,000, why is there not a system set as much as alert the person earlier than it will get to that quantity?” Seezox stated.
The Water Division stated prospects in homes and two-flats are mechanically notified if their water meter is working constantly — a sign that there’s a break within the line on the property or a working bathroom.
However Juarez and Seezox, who each have metered accounts, by no means acquired a warning.
They only acquired the invoice.
Thomas L. Kuczynski of the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority stated that’s precisely what they have been attempting to keep away from once they put collectively their Excessive Utilization Alert System again in 2006.
“We will choose up issues that historically would go for an extended time frame,” Kuczynski stated.
Now, the D.C. division has a smartphone app.
“It truly provides you the power to even discover smaller leaks extra rapidly, as a result of it is monitoring consumption on an hourly foundation quite than it on a median,” Kuczynski stated.
Between the excessive utilization and steady utilization alerts, they despatched out about 1,500 notifications a month – serving to prospects find doable leaks and even figuring out doable meter malfunctions, virtually in actual time.
“Anecdotally you’ll be able to, you already know, see that it is most likely reduce down considerably on the variety of excessive invoice complaints that we might have gotten,” Kuczynski stated.
Kuczynski says the alert system and app was not a multimillion-dollar piece of expertise for them. He estimated it will take about $250,000 to construct from scratch – they usually did a lot of the work in home.
We requested Chicago’s Water Division for extra particulars by itself program and the way it could possibly be improved probably with an app like this. Late Monday, we have been nonetheless ready for a response.
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