Complaint Review: Town of Leesburg Virginia Water - Leesburg Virginia

I was notified by the Town of Leesburg Water that the house I am only "renting" has an underground water leak. From 1/7/10 to 2/4/10 540,000 gallons had been lost under our house. I asked the Town to shut the water off and moved my family to a hotel.

The owners of the property fixed the leak after 11 days. We paid our rent in full and incurred hotel expenses on top of it. As the tenant of this house the water bill was in my name and now I am supposed to pay the bill. I did speak with with a representative of the Town of Leesburg, who deducted a portion of the bill but could do not more for us.

We are on a limited income and do not have the means to pay this astronomical bill above what we usually pay quarterly. I've been told that if I don't pay the bill my water will be shut off.

Here is the site for The Town of Leesburg that boasts how The Town of Leesburg monitors the water waste. This system is monitored by a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA system.

http://www.aclara.com/Documents/MeteringandMore_WE0907-web.pdf

Per the above website: "The STAR Network AMR system from Aclara that we selected utilizes a meter-transmission unit (MTU) that sends a radio signal to a datacollection unit (DCU) twice per day, or as programmed, with up to 12 readings per hour. We elected to place the DCUs on top of public buildings, where possible, and we were able to provide coverage of the entire town with 14 devices. The MTUs are mounted in meter pits along with our meters. To extend battery life, the transmissions are programmed to come back to the utility head-end system only twice a day, but they carry readings that can show us consumption every hour".

My question is, if Homeowners/Renters can not monitor their water usage, how are they supposed to know there is a leak? Why did it take the water department 1 month to notify me of a leak so large? The Town of Leesburg has the means to notice that a single house is using in excess of 39,000 gallons a day.

As I mentioned I have personally spoken with many related to the county and town and they all agree that the Town of Leesburg Water department has the means of not charging me. It's all a question of integrity and doing the right thing by an innocent citizen and tax payer of this community.

The leak was not detected by me since we did not have any water pressure issues. As a matter of fact the plumber and technician on site stated that our PSI was 81 even with the break. That is a great amount of pressure. Now with the pipe fixed I have to turn the faucets on only a little or it's too much. I wonder how long this leak has actually been going on............

I should not have to pay one cent above and beyond my normal usage and payment. I will continue to fight this charge tooth and nail. I will only get louder and louder. I have contacted several News stations, Newspapers, BBB, Consumer Complaints, State Senator Herring as well as Congressional Representative Frank Wolf just to name a few.......... I am confident that somebody will stand up and do the right thing. I did not use all this water, as it was an act of God and I should not be charged for it.

Right now as it stands the Town of Leesburg has adjusted the bill significantly however not anywhere near fair to our normal usage.  They have agreed to a payment plan until the amount if paid in full.  If we decline to pay it they will shut our water off. 

This is the water mafia!