Water-bill woes not limited to Perth Amboy

For Julie Suchcicki of Old Bridge, reading about Claire Danielczyk’s dispute with Perth Amboy over her $732 water bill was deja vu.

That’s because Suchcicki experienced the same problem with her mother’s water bill six years ago.

“Her bill was $1,200. I fought the battle for six months,” Suchcicki said. “It was a nightmare.”

Danielczyk, 89, is fighting a $732 water bill she received from Perth Amboy for the alleged use of 65,076 gallons of water last fall, a nearly 60,000-gallon increase over the amount she normally sees during each billing period.

The city wants payment on the bill, but Danielczyk doesn’t think she should have to pay for water she didn’t use. The city, which investigated the water-bill spike by checking the meter and equipment, has offered to resolve the dispute with a payment plan.

No agreement was reached by the two sides at a recent City Council meeting. Danielczyk’s son, Paul, said he felt deceived after representatives of Middlesex Water Co. were able to speak about his mother’s water issue, but he was not given a chance to refute their comments.

“It’s not a malfunctioning toilet,” Danielczyk said.

Suchcicki said her mother, the late Alfreda Golaszewski of Sayreville, had been receiving quarterly water bills of about $50 to $60 for 50 years at her one-bathroom house. But shortly after Suchcicki’s father died, her mother received a $1,200 bill for the alleged use of 268,000 gallons of water.

“Common sense would tell you it was a big mistake,” said Suchcicki, adding that no leaks or running water was found at the home and the meter was checked. The high bill arrived more than a year after the bathroom in the house had been renovated. She received a call threatening to turn off her mother’s water.

Suchcicki asked for a payment plan. She wanted to pay $1 a month toward the $1,200 bill while she continued to pay the new water bills, which had returned to the $50 to $60 quarterly amount.

“I wanted to fight it further. My mother just wanted it over,” said Suchcicki, who eventually reached a compromise with Sayreville and paid a little more than half of the $1,200 bill. “They cut down the price, but they still got too much.”

Mattie Todd, of the Somerset section of Franklin, has received two high water bills this year, after a 20-year history of quarterly bills ranging from $98 to $100. She said her bill for the first quarter of this year was more than $200 and her second bill was more than $300. She said interest is being applied to late payments.

She said her meter was checked and no leaks have been found from her toilet, yard, walls or floors. She was been told she needs to hire a plumber to check the pipes in her home.

“They say I have to pay the bills,” said Todd, whose water is supplied by Franklin Township. She already has been told that her bill for the current quarter will be more than $200. “I can’t afford these bills. I’ve lived here 20 years and now why are the bills so high. Where is the water going?”

Donna Reino said her mother, Mary Cocuzza, of the Iselin section of Woodbridge, also is fighting a $851.07 water bill for allegedly using 164,000 gallons from last December to March. Her water bill usually is about $104 every three months. Her mother’s latest bill is $102.

Reino said no leaks were found on her mother’s property and she has no dishwasher or swimming pool. Her meter has been checked.

Reino has paid $300 toward the bill and sent Middlesex Water Co. a letter about her mother’s bill but has yet to receive a response.

“That’s a lot of water. Where did the water go?” Reino said.

“We run into this occasionally,” Peter Eschbach, New Jersey American Water director of communications, said about spikes in water bills, adding that the customer’s account and history of usage is reviewed while also checking for leaky toilets or irrigation systems and inspecting the meter and service line.

Once the cause is determined, if it’s a mistake on the company’s part, the account is credited. If a leak is detected, the company works with the customer.

“We won’t rush out and shut the water off,” he said.

Eschbach said there is not just one thing that can cause a spike in a water bill.

“The toilet is a major source of leaking in households,” said Eschbach adding that leakage can’t always be detected by seeing or hearing the water running. He said a few drops of food color in the tank that is seen seeping into the bowl is the sign of a leak from a flapper that needs to be adjusted.

“You can fill a swimming pool up in a month from leaks,” he said. “Leaky toilets don’t heal itself.”

Spikes in water bills also can be caused by transcription errors when reading a meter. He said the company has a warning system if water usage appears to go unusually high.

Arnold Singer, a former Edison resident who served on a condominium association board in Alabama where he has dealt with residents experiencing spikes in water bills, said consumer water usage is recorded as pulses accumulated for transmission to a central site for billing.

He believes there might have been a short in Danielczyk’s connection to the local unit that resulted in false pulses. He said if the electrical connecting wires were disconnected and then reconnected, this would have corrected the false pulses, resulting in a return to more normal water usage and billing.

“I believe that the false pulses, caused by a short in a connecting wire, were the culprit and Ms. Danielczyk’s bill should be adjusted,” he said in an email about Danielczck’s story. “The meter is at fault.”

Staff Writer Suzanne Russell: 732-565-7335; srussell@mycentraljersey.com