Few answers or remedies for Bethlehem residents with mysteriously high water bills

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Bethlehem Water and Sewer Resources Director Edward Boscola says the water meter infrastructure in place — even in the case of some older meters from the 1990s set to be replaced — has been shown to read accurately.

But some water customers aren’t buying it after having to deal with some hefty and mysterious water bills during the past year.

A local Facebook water bill “watchdog” group known as “The Drip” has jumped by over 40 members since Monday morning.

Boscola said the 11 employees in the Commercial Operations Bureau are dedicated to meter reading, billing and handling water bill disputes.

The city’s water and sewer resources department provides water for about 37,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers around the area.

Beyond the city, the entity also serves parts of 11 other municipalities across Lehigh and Northampton counties.

Not 'a whole lot of leeway'

Both the related water ordinance and tariff include specific yet identical language on how the department addresses billing disputes.

The ordinance covers about 23,000 customers in the city.

The tariff, serving about 14,000, is issued by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission and is in place regarding customers outside the city limits.

Article 911.08, or the “Water Tariff and Ordinance,” reads:

“No adjustment of amount registered is permitted for any reason except malfunction of meter, or upon a positive showing by the customer in instances of excessive usage that the usage resulted from circumstances beyond his ability to control.”

Among some “rare” cases of customers experiencing unexplainable water usage, Boscola said the folks of the department do what they can to help.

But there’s not “a whole lot of leeway” depending on the scenario, based on city ordinance.

“We try to assist the customer with troubleshooting, but when I say ‘troubleshooting,’ we’re not plumbers,” Boscola said.

“We don’t necessarily go to people’s houses, although in some cases we do try and help them identify where potential leakage or high usage can occur.”

He said that based on the department’s experience, common causes for high usage can include leaky toilets and faucets, outdoor hoses left running, hot water boilers acting awry, plumbing issues in a detached accessory unit and busted pipes in unheated spaces.

Since 2015, his team has only received 28 requests for meter tests, he said. Those all came back 100% accurate, Boscola said, to “clarify how accurate our metering system is.”

He said staff has replaced meter models over the past decade, as well as tested about 2,000 of those. They came back showing 97% of them testing accurately, 3% testing slow and none testing fast.

“There’s no evidence to suggest that meters speed up or run fast, or measure flow, more flow than actually moves to the meter — physically impossible,” Boscola said.

And in the case of stopped meters, about 650 over the last 10 years, the customer isn’t slammed with additional charges.

“We’re not out to hit people with fees that back-calculate what their usage would have been,” Boscola said.

“We’re not in that business of doing that.”

'An unsolved mystery'

Councilwoman Hillary Kwiatek asked for clarification on the language in the water ordinance, specifically as it relates to “circumstances beyond his ability to control” as listed.

City solicitor John Spirk Jr. said he interpreted that phrasing to include acts of vandalism and other “catastrophic” events, such as somebody breaking an outdoor spigot, somebody forcing themselves into a home and busting a pipe in the process or a truck running into someone’s home, for example.

Councilwoman Grace Crampsie Smith said the mysterious charges as of late are “very concerning.”

“[Some customers] go to the trouble of hiring a plumber, and they look at every avenue and nothing can be found,” Crampsie Smith said.

“It’s just like an unsolved mystery.”

“The state police officer has his radar calibrated every month, and we go by the radar,” Spirk said to Crampsie Smith.

“They didn’t intend to speed, but it happened.”

Boscola stood behind the city’s operations in place.

“The water does not just evaporate into thin air; it goes somewhere,” Boscola said.

“The meters do not lie.”

Councilwoman Colleen Laird pitched the idea of potentially changing the water ordinance altogether.

“I would say it’s been our practice to be fair to every customer, both in city and outside,” Boscola said in response.

“But in theory, yes, you could have different rules for both inside and outside the city.”

She also asked if “anomaly charges” had ever been considered for these types of cases.

“These cases are so rare, there just hasn’t been a need to do anything like that,” Boscola said.

“ … The whole premise here is to establish rules that are fair for everybody. So, you know, if you start giving somebody a break for this unexplained usage, then I gotta give somebody else a break and then it starts to unravel.”

Laird also said a digital customer portal system would be useful, especially with the transition to the new meters in every residential household.

In the meantime, Davis said there are some digital usage tracking options out there for anyone still with one of the older meters.

Meter replacement project

The city is working to replace old positive displacement models around the city with new electromagnetic models.

These newer meters have been in service for a decade with no reported issues with the transfer of usage data to the billing system.

They come with 2,000 data points per quarter, daily reports and high-flow alarms if needed, as opposed to the older model’s one data point every quarter. They should last about 20 years, Boscola said.

Every residential customer is planned to be on the new systems by 2028.

The new meters, so far, have shown to come with about 10-20 high-flow notifications per month.

Water officials said these customers are usually alerted of this by phone call, but with 37,000 customers total, sometimes things can get hairy. Phone numbers change, emails change, addresses change, Boscola said.

About 10% of all current accounts can be hard to get a hold of in the case of high usage, according to Jason Davis, manager of commercial operations with the department.

The group sometimes has to resort to notifying by door tag hangers, they said. And sometimes tenants don’t forward the matter to their landlords.

Considering these “mega-bills” coming to light lately, if the water doesn’t go down a sanitary drain, officials normally waive the associated sewer charge, Boscola said.

Councilman and Public Works Committee chairman Bryan Callahan originally called the meeting for March 19.

“I think it is refreshing, though, that a large amount of the meters have been flipped over to these new meters, which is a good thing,” said Councilman and Public Works Committee chairman Bryan Callahan.

“ … I feel bad for the people who have been billed what they believe is unfairly, and I wish that we could get these newer meters installed quicker.”

Boscola said a contractor has been brought on to help his team complete meter replacements on the South Side this year before moving to the West Side.

Three-meter repair technicians currently work on the water department staff, meaning about 1,500 meters could be replaced annually, Boscola said. A contractor has been brought on as necessary to keep pace with the overall replacement goals.