DETROIT – A Detroit mother and son are fighting back against water bills they say are wildly inaccurate, claiming they couldn’t have used more than 110,000 gallons of water in just two months.
Roderick Wright and his mother share a 1,100-square-foot home.
He says the bills they received for April and May simply don’t add up.
“Altogether it’s 110,000 gallons of water, we’re not a car wash,” Wright said.
According to the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department’s own estimates, the pair used enough water in those two months to shower 2,750 times or flush 4,400 toilets.
A second bill only deepened Wright’s confusion.
“A new bill came the other day saying that we used 46k gallons of water; at the same time last year we used 700-ish gallons of water,” Wright said.
Wright contacted Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department, believing there had been a mistake.
On May 3, someone came out and replaced the meter, but the issues didn’t stop there.
“When they did that, I thought the issue would be fixed. Now they’re still saying we had a runny toilet downstairs, the water tank is leaking, maybe we have a busted tank outside somewhere, which the plumber checked, and we have none of those issues,” Wright said.
The dispute has taken a financial toll on Wright, who says he can’t afford the bill.
His attempts to resolve the situation landed him on a payment plan with a tight deadline.
“$1,136.36, if we don’t make this payment of $370 by July 6, then that’s what we’ll have to pay,” Wright said.
A review of the bills found the numbers difficult to explain, particularly given a plumber’s report indicating no leaks during the inspection of the home.
That information was brought directly to Gary Brown, director of the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department.
“This is a residential home, we know their economic situation, we’re going to help resolve the large bill, applying our one-time leak policy,” Brown said.
Brown maintained a leak was to blame for the irregular meter readings, but said he believes the issue has since been resolved.
He added that the department plans to work with the Wright family to give them a fresh start.
“We’ll look at what their average bill was during the other months and bring it in line with what would’ve taken place without the leak that occurred,” Brown said.