On social media, there have been a lot of questions raised lately about the accuracy of the utility bill that people are receiving from the city. There have been reports of high usage as well as low usage.
Loading ...No water usage for a year
One of the examples that I have found is my own water bill. Over the course of the past year, we have had our meter report low consumption. This is odd for us because we live on a 5.25-acre farm that has about 1 acre of crops, including livestock.
I contacted the water department and asked them what was the problem. They sent someone out to check our meter and found that the meter itself was defective. Kudos to Shyrell Staley, who was the technician that replaced our meter, she was friendly, and professional, and even fielded questions from a four-year-old. When a meter goes bad, it will always be in the favor of the resident. It should be noted that this is not the norm, it is not usually the meter itself that is having issues, but the Smart Point. The smart point could be bad, or it could be a wiring issue or the dock that connects the smart point with the meter.
12K Water overbilling
One resident mentioned on Facebook that they were being threatened to have their water disconnected after receiving a bill for 12K worth of water, and they mentioned it had happened twice in the last few months.
On Facebook, the city responded with, “it appears there were two months with water meter misreads. The City has replaced the malfunctioning water meter reader for you and will be sending a tech to manually read it for the next two months to ensure accuracy.” It should be noted that the meter reader is what is referred to as a Smart Point. This is also an isolated incident. What happens in situations like this is that the smart point shows a reading, then the city does a manual read. The manual read is less than what the smart point indicated. The system then thinks that the resident had basically rolled over the meter. The resident is then charged for the amount they did that month, plus the amount for the meter rollover. The billing department usually catches this situation prior to the resident actually getting the bill. This was one that slipped through the cracks.
City Response
I sat down with some members of City Staff on Nov 7th to discuss a couple of things that I found when I was looking over some documents that I requested via GRAMA. The city staff that was present: Tyler Maffitt – Communications Manager, Paul Jerome – City Administrator, Kimberly Ruesch – Finance Director, Mack Straw – Public Utilities Manager
The city was more than willing to help answer my questions and give me transparency into the process and how things work. I feel like the city is doing the best it can with the resources it has.
The main issue the city is having now is a supply chain issue. The most common piece to break is the Smart Point that is supplied by Sensus. Sensus is the current city supplier for meters as well as Smart Points. The city currently has 3,500 units on backorder and the supply chain is running short.
There are currently 1,200 failed smart points in Eagle Mountain, according to what I learned during the meeting. And the city is barely receiving enough new Smart Points to keep up with growth. The new developments get priority over current residents. No one wants to tell a new homeowner that they can’t move in for a couple of months because the city can’t get a meter or Smart Point for their new construction. So the city then has to resort to manual reads on the 1,200 nonfunctioning Smart Points until replacements can be used. The city feels like it will be able to catch up and replace all of those Smart Points that are failing within the next 18 months.
I want to also let residents know that the city if they do have to charge a resident because of a faulty Smart Point, will always use the lowest water rate tier. This works in favor of the residents because they do not have to pay for higher-tier usage for that month.
You can read their official response to my inquiry here: City scrutinizes water meter readings to ensure accuracy.
What can residents do?
If you find that you have a problem with your water bill, please contact the city and explain the situation. The city is more than willing to work with residents when problems with the Smart Point or meters occur. Most likely it is an issue with the Smart Point, and the meter is working fine and still collecting your correct water usage. They currently have 1,200 Smart Points they know are not working correctly, but are having supply chain issues with receiving new ones to replace the faulty ones. If your bill is higher because it is now reflecting your actual meter reading, contact the city, they are willing to work with residents with a billing plan to help spread the cost of water usage over time.
Reference Documents
It should be noted that the data in these documents are from the billing department, and not from the utility department. There are changes made that are not reflected in these documents due to meter rollovers and incorrect manual reads.
Mike Kieffer is an IT geek by hobby and trade, with a BS in Information Systems & Technology. He is a proud father of 10, a grandpa, an author, a journalist, and internet publisher. His motto is to “Elevate, Inspire and Inform”, and he is politically conservative and a Christian. Mike has a passion for technology, writing, and helping others. With a wealth of experience, he is committed to sharing his knowledge with others to help them reach their full potential. He is known for his jackassery or his form of self-expression that encourages boldness, creativity, and risk-taking. It can be a way to push the boundaries and challenge traditional norms, leading to creative solutions and positive change.
Awesome journalism, as always! Thank you for actually reporting the facts.