City water department to fix wave of erroneous bills

Customers in 19 ZIP codes may have received bills with a balance well into the thousands. The Inquirer reported one woman received a bill for nearly $15,000.

Darryl C. Murphy

August 6, 2021

The billing error impacted about 18,000 customers, mostly in the city's Point Breeze neighborhood. (6ABC)

Some residents in the city have received astronomically high water bills due to a backend error.

Customers in 19 ZIP codes may have received bills with a balance well into the thousands. The Inquirer reported one woman received a bill for nearly $15,000.

The water department said the increase is due to an error with data files that affected about 16,800 of the roughly 480,000 accounts they serve.

The water department and the Water Revenue Bureau first discovered the problem on August 4. The customers affected will have any billing errors reversed.

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“We understand this has caused considerable distress and confusion for the impacted customers,” said Deputy Revenue Commissioner for Water Susan Crosby. “It is important customers know that we are working to resolve this as quickly as possible, and we have taken steps to ensure the incorrect bills will not impact those using automatic payment options. This will be resolved, and it will not impact what customers actually owe.”

The city said the issue has nothing to do with upgraded meters.

The following ZIP codes have been affected:

19104
19111
19116
19120
19122
19123
19129
19132
19133
19138
19140
19141
19142
19144
19145
19146
19148
19149
19154

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