PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Many families in St. Pete have been receiving inexplicably high water bills for the last year. After receiving many complaints, the city is now looking into the issue.
"The math doesn’t math," said Chad Plante, who lives in St. Pete.
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Plante said his water bill these days doesn’t make much sense.
"For a single-family home to be having a $300 water bill is just outrageous," said Plante.
He said his bill hasn’t been under three hundred dollars in over a year, and he’s checked for leaks.
"I don’t have a pool. I don’t have sprinklers you know I'm not doing an excessive amount of laundry or anything like that," said Plante.
It’s something, his neighbor, Kaliopi Weaver, has also been experiencing.
"It’s not good. There’s no water being used. I’ve been careful about checking for leaks doing all that, but still it’s very high," said Weaver.
Both Plante and Weaver do as much as they can to save money.
"I take my clothes to the laundry because if I had a washer, I wouldn’t be able to afford to pay the water bill, so it’s cheaper to take it somewhere else," said Weaver.
Many people have contacted the City of St. Pete about their high water bills over the last year.
Because of the complaints, the Budget, Finance, and Taxation Committee has decided to review the city’s water billing department to find out if there’s an issue that’s causing higher-than-normal bills.
"We need a reliable system, and if it is the system, then we need to just say that and figure out how we can fix the glitch in the system," said Corey Givens Jr., St. Pete City Councilman.
St. Pete City Council will be voting on the evaluation in the next few weeks.
"I hope they can sort it out and it becomes a little more fair and a little more affordable because right now, I feel like everybody is in a slump," said Plante.
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