BY GARRET JAROS/YachatsNews
YACHATS – The mystery of the Yachats water bill run amuck is solved.
Stephen Issac, who lives alone and whose monthly water bill averages $130, was stunned when he saw two massive and intermittent spikes this year — $876 in May and $1,866 in August.
Isaac called the city after his May bill and explained that he’s a light user who does not own a pool or hot tub or have a garden to water. Assuming it was a meter error, city staff cancelled the bill.
But outright cancelling a bill is against city policy. So when Isaac called about his August bill, he was told to appeal to the city council.
In the meantime, public works staff checked the meter on Isaac’s 11-acre property at the top of Reeves Circle in September only to discover he was actually getting charged less than his actual use. The meter also showed no leaks in the system.
The meter said Isaac used 96,492 gallons of water that led to his August bill. That’s more than two gallons a minute.
Isaac pled his case at an Oct. 5 city council meeting where he was quizzed by council and public works staff about possible causes – toilet running, hose or water line leaking, maybe neighbors or mystery campers stealing water?
None of the above, Isaac said.
The council agreed to knock $1,400 off the bill but told Isaac to hire a plumber and get it figured out because there would be no relief if it happened again.
“… I had a plumber come out and they found one of my downstairs’ toilets that I never use – running,” Isaac said Tuesday. “There was a problem inside the tank. The thing that helps the float had gotten under the stopper.”
The reason the leak was so intermittent is because Isaac has two sons who visit occasionally and stay in a spare bedroom downstairs that has its own bathroom. His 17-year-old son visited in May; his 30-year-old son in August.
“And then I have a house cleaner come out every two to three weeks and she probably heard it running in there and fixed it that first time,” Isaac said. “And when my oldest son was out here it must have been left running again and she found it and turned it off again.”
Isaac said the reason he did not hire a plumber sooner was because the leak was months apart.
While Isaac is thankful council granted him credit on his bill, he remains a little put out by how he felt the city handled it from the get go.
“It’s like, help me figure this out. I’m not trying to put one over on the city, I’m just trying to figure out what the problem is because if there is a leak, I don’t want to be wasting that much water.”
While Isaac was flush with enough money to pay the bill if no mediation was granted, he wonders how a service industry worker who lives in the community would be affected. He also wonders why the city did not call him within a week or two of seeing his extreme water use to ask him what was going on, especially considering the water shortage issues faced by the community.
Unfortunately, that is not an option explained Yachats water supervisor Rick McClung, who suggested during the council meeting that Isaac check his toilets.
“We read meters once a month,” McClung said. “We don’t have a near real-time system that you might see on a computer. We still have to go out and read them.”
- Garret Jaros is YachatsNews’ full-time reporter and can be reached at GJaros@YachatsNews.com
Instead of trying to shift responsibility onto the city and whining in the process, Isaac should be grateful he didn’t have to pay the full bill even though this was completely his responsibility. As it stands, other city water users now are paying for his lack of diligence.
I totally agree
It’s time to install ball valves and turn them off in the in rarely used bathrooms. I need to do this too, as leaks can happen at any time.
Water usage is solely the homeowners responsibility. There is no blame on the city’s shoulders. In fact, he should pay for the full bill out of decency. Everyone else has had to pay for their own water leak, why not him? he council should have requested more information, like a plumber’s report before waiving that much money. In my opinion, they just set a precedent to waive large amounts of money for people that don’t meet the qualifications of leak assistance.