In an open letter to water customers of Calgary—basically anyone who has running water at home—the City of Calgary explained that the unexpected bill spikes that some residents have been receiving will not be leaving them high and dry.
The letter says that of the 350,000 customers who receive monthly bills, less than 0.5% see a higher than usual spike to their water-usage costs. Still, that’s roughly 1,750 bills that will leave people scratching their heads and checking their pipes.
Regardless, the city has introduced procedures so that a leaky faucet won’t have Calgarians draining their bank accounts in order to foot the bill.
According to the open letter:
“Customers who fix leaks in a reasonable amount of time (after being contacted by ENMAX) will no longer have to pay the extraordinarily large bill. They will be billed on their average use.”
And, “for those customers where the leak is more difficult to detect, The City and ENMAX will work with those customers to identify the problem. Once the problem is identified and fixed within a reasonable amount of time, the customers will be billed on their average use.”
While the city of Calgary stated that there “there are no indications of irregularities resulting in an increase in high consumption bills” due to the city’s meters or billing system, they have brought in third parties to review the process.
“We are committed to doing an independent assessment of our systems because we know that customers must be able to trust that their water consumption is accurately captured by their meter and reflected on their bills.”
So no worries if you receive a water bill that has your tears running; you’ll be off the hook as long as you get that leaf fixed up in a timely manner.
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