Problems with meters, software left Evergreen water customers with surprise bills

Evergreen’s water and sewer utility has issued a statement to customers after months of water meter and software failures left some finding surprising costs on their monthly bills.

Resident Karen Hill said she was shocked this month to receive a service bill from the Evergreen Water and Sewer District for over $1,100 — a sum she described as significantly larger than her typical statement. She reported paying less than $300 for water the entire previous year.

Upon calling the utility’s customer service line, Hill said she was told that she was being backbilled due to a meter outage that had been occurring for seven months. The customer service representative said the issue was affecting other utility customers in the area, according to Hill.

Utility General Manager Cindy Murray confirmed that the provider has been working to correct meter and metering software problems and estimated that it could have affected around 400 of the district’s 3,500 customers.

She pointed to old and failing meters, replacement meter supply chain issues and signal issues with remote metering software as the culprits.

Murray said that the utility has added antennas to their network and hopes the move will solve what she describes as erratic software performance.

When it comes to the bills, Murray said that the water provider typically estimates usage or charges customers the base service rate with no usage applied until they can rectify metering issues. The utility then backbills customers, she said.

Hill’s frustration boiled down to what she felt was a lack of communication from the utility about the issue.

“I understood that the meter went down and the bill wasn’t right, things happen,” she said. “You shouldn't let it go seven months. That’s terrible customer service.”

After receiving inquiries from the Daily Inter Lake, the utility put out a statement about the issue on their website and social media page.

“The district apologizes for the difficulties and concerns this has caused our customers. We are trying to be fair to all our customers. Being fair means that if you used the water, you should pay for it. But we also realize that unexpected high bills are especially challenging in these tough economic times,” the statement reads.

Murray said the district is not large enough to set up automated alerts to customers, but acknowledged that the utility could have done more to get the message out to customers sooner.

“When we have billing problems and software problems we need to be putting out notices [and] that’s something we need to do a better job of in the future,” Murray said.

After calls to the utility about her bill, Hill was able to adjust her bill down to $150, although the amount is still higher than the $20 per month she has been accustomed to paying.

As well as being an unwelcome surprise, the bill takes a sizable bite out of her fixed Social Security income.

“I could either pay the water or my mortgage, not both,” said Hill. “If they made a mistake I shouldn’t have to pay for it.”

Reporter Adrian Knowler can be reached at 758-4407 or aknowler@dailyinterlake.com.