From $50 to $1,000: High water bill issue troubling some Miami Springs residents

Marina Gonzalez says the water bill for her modest three-bedroom house in Miami Springs is typically around the same price month to month. 

“My bill usually is from $58 to $90 something dollars every month of water. And what I spend in the water, a thousand something dollars,” Gonzalez said.  

In April, her water bill skyrocketed with charges over a thousand dollars. 

“Well, it hurts me because I had to pay so much money, and it's not right. It's not right that they should charge me for the water that I spend,” Gonzalez said. 

She said last April, she had another higher-than-normal bill. 

A yearly look at Gonzalez’s usage history showed low consumption all year long, except for April of the last two years. 

“And I complain, and I complain about the meters, and the meter is nothing wrong, nothing wrong with the meter. We're taking your meter, and we're going to check it, and nothing wrong with your meter,” Gonzalez said she was told. 

But she isn’t the only one describing higher-than-normal charges in the area. NBC6 Responds heard from two other people in the Miami Springs area who say their bills have also skyrocketed from one month to the next. The culprit, they think, is estimated meter readings. 

If the water department does not manually read your meter, they are allowed to estimate your usage, and they bill you that amount. 

According to a statement from the Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department, estimated readings were a part of the problem. 

In a statement, a spokesperson told us the following, 

“Miami-Dade Water and Sewer Department (WASD) regularly replaces meters as part of a scheduled standard operating procedure. A limited number of new automated meters installed in the Miami Springs area contained serial numbers that did not sync with the department’s billing system. The meters provided to the department by the vendor had a nine-digit serial number and department’s billing system utilizes an eight-digit serial number. This issue prevented the information from the meters to be transmitted to the department’s billing system. Without a transmitted reading, the department’s billing system automatically calculates an estimated bill based on historical consumption for the customer’s account.” 

“Once department staff realized this disconnect in the system, it was corrected. Staff is now reevaluating the bills for customers who received these new meters and received estimated bills. As an added safeguard, department staff will be notified when an account has two consecutive estimated bills to take further action – including verifying that their meter serial number is synched correctly in both systems.

WASD customers can always contact the department’s customer service section at 305-665-7477 if they have questions about their bill.” 

For Gonzalez, she said she has been credited back $1,000 to her account but she wants her meter manually read to safeguard from any higher than normal charges. 

“But this has been going on already for a long time, and I don't want them to come and estimate my bill,” Gonzalez said. 

According to the Miami-Dade County website, you can check to see if your meter was misread by copying down the numbers on your meter and comparing them to the numbers on your utility bill under the current reading. The numbers on the meter should be equal to or higher than what you see on your bill. If they aren’t you can contact the water department and request a corrected bill.