Hosed? / Ogden says the Baurs used 1.4 million gallons of water, and made them pay for it
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1 Comment [ View ]OGDEN -- While dozens of Ogden residents continue to bemoan water rates stemming from a surcharge implemented earlier this year, their bills are a drop in the bucket compared to the doozy Rick Baur received.
Baur, who lives at 2586 S. 1825 East, paid $9,700 to the city for using 1.4 million gallons between Dec. 19 and April 4, typically a time when residential water consumption is at its lowest levels.
"I was blown away," said Baur, who paid off the bill in August but disputes using that much water. "It's enough to buy a used car."
So exactly how much is 1.4 million gallons?
It would fill the Ben Lomond High School swimming pool seven times, or a 20,000-gallon home pool 70 times. It's enough to supply the 150-acre Lagoon amusement park in Farmington for more than three months.
Craig Frisbee, the city's water utility manager, acknowledges that Baur's usage from December to April was extraordinary.
"Something strange is going on," he said. "When water goes through a meter, they (customers) are obligated to pay for that."
Inspections by the city and a local plumber failed to find any water leaks at Baur's home contributing to extreme usage, said Frisbee.
"Large draws like this put a great amount of strain on our system and we want to find out if there is a problem as much as the citizen, that's why we spend the time to go to the property and check both our system and their system for leaks," Frisbee told the Standard-Examiner. "We even go so far as to re-read and check the meter to make sure it is registering accurately."
Baur said he and his wife, Monica, didn't use any water at their home from mid-December to early January because they were vacationing in the Virgin Islands.
He also said his property didn't receive an inordinate amount of watering during the remainder of the nearly 31/2-month billing period.
The city is working with Baur to either re-bill the charges or issue a credit at $2.30 per 1,000 gallons, Frisbee said. Typically, customers like Baur who have a three-quarter-inch meter but don't have secondary water are charged $7.70 per 1,000 gallons when they use more than 70,000 gallons.
Baur, who irrigates only about a third of his 2-acre parcel, said his water odyssey began in mid-December when city workers were unable to read his meter because it was covered in snow.
As a result, Baur's water bills for January, February and March were based on estimates derived from water consumption from October, November and December.
In early April when the city again read Baur's water meter, it determined he had actually used about 1.4 million gallons over the previous 31/2 months. His bill was then adjusted to $9,700.
"They (employees in the city's water department) called him to let him know the bill was coming so he wouldn't have a heart attack," his wife Monica said. "I thought it was a joke, but they made us pay it."
The city determined Baur's water meter was operating at 72 percent capacity, which means he actually used more than 1.4 million gallons, said George Benford, Ogden's public services director.
"I've never heard of anybody using that much water," Benford said. "I can't imagine it. It's odd. That's the level you would use when you get to a manufacturing facility."
Bo Hoskins, an Ogden plumber, said he thoroughly checked Baur's pipes and sprinkler system for problems but hasn't found anything that would contribute to the staggering water bill.
"It's a tremendous amount of water (especially) in the winter," he said. "It's pretty crazy."
Although Baur has taken care of the $9,700 bill, he isn't out of the woods just yet. He still owes the city $1,700 for water usage in August.
However, financial help may be on the way.
The city council plans to vote next month on a recommendation from Mayor Matthew Godfrey to provide rebates for bills issued in June, July and August to those hardest hit by the surcharge implemented to encourage water conservation.
About $275,000 in rebates, either in the form of a check or a credit against future water bills, may be issued to slightly fewer than 500 customers.
Those eligible for rebates are about 2 percent of the city's 26,000 commercial and residential water users, Mark Johnson, the municipality's management services director, has estimated.
Godfrey is also recommending that rates for customers without secondary water be reduced from $7.70 to $2.30 per 1,000 gallons when they use more than 70,000 gallons or 100,000 gallons, depending on the size of their pipes.
He has also requested that customers with secondary water pay $2 instead of $7.50 per 1,000 gallons for more than 20,000 gallons or 40,000 gallons, based on pipe size.
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What about checking the City's utility billing system? No one has mentioned the likely possibility of a COMPUTER PROBLEM? It sounds like a decimal point (or two or three) may be out of place? Or other computer calculated error? Where is the I.T. dept in all of this mess?