Environment & Energy
Related: About this forumWest Virginia families, billed for smelly water they didn’t use, bill water company right back
The chemical spill in West Virginia has left thousands of people near Charleston with licorice-scented tap water that theyre afraid to use, despite the assurances of government and their water company.
West Virginia American Water promised customers a credit on their bills for the water homeowners needed to use to flush their pipes of contamination. But when many received their January bills, the credit was no where to be found, ThinkProgress reported. And some bills showed hundreds of gallons of water use that homeowners claimed as impossible even with the flushing, given how circumspect their water use had been since the January 9 contamination of the Elk River with 10,000 gallons of Crude MCHM.
So, about a hundred people marched Saturday to the offices of West Virginia American Water to present the company with invoices for the water theyve had to buy on the open market, along with their ancillary expenses.
...
The water company asked customers to flush their pipes twice last month. During those flushes, customers were asked to leave their water on for 25 minutes, a process that WVAM said should use at most 500 gallons of water. A 1000-gallon credit for homeowners and 2000-gallon credit should have appeared on bills this month, WVAM President Jeff McIntyre told ThinkProgress.
But several people approached ThinkProgress with their bills, showing no credit and inexplicably-increased water usage.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/09/west-virginia-families-billed-for-smelly-water-they-didnt-use-bill-water-company-right-back/
Demeter
(85,373 posts)NV Whino
(20,886 posts)I've had a similar experience with credit card and phone bills. The service rep agrees to a credit, but the computers continue on their merry way and charge, not only the initial amount, but interest and a late charge when you don't pay.
And they should be billing the chemical plant, not the water company, for extra water they had to buy.
MyOwnPeace
(16,951 posts)and the chemical president will step out and say,
"Hey, we've had a tough few months here. Give us a break. We have bills to pay too!"
calimary
(81,594 posts)Like the weasels they are?
NV Whino
(20,886 posts)BodieTown
(147 posts)...water bills in the West are horrendous, and if you are essentially ordered to flush your system of poisoned water, YOU are paying the price of the poisoning.
It just never stops, does it?
perdita9
(1,144 posts)It's the only way things change.
marions ghost
(19,841 posts)who are NOT putting up with this...
From OP article:
"So, about a hundred people marched Saturday to the offices of West Virginia American Water to present the company with invoices for the water theyve had to buy on the open market, along with their ancillary expenses.
Their invoices leave space to estimate the cost of lost wages and profits from when businesses closed, extra school costs, sewage bills from flushing pipes and the cost of additional taxes theyll be forced to pay to manage the crisis, the West Virginia Gazette reported. Brooke Drake, of Charleston, told the Gazette that she estimated that the water crisis has cost her $290, mostly in gas and hours lost picking up bottled water."