SAN DIEGO — When the City of San Diego finds an unusually high increase in a property owner's water bill, instead of notifying the resident, the city tells CBS 8 that it sets the bill aside to investigate.
In numerous instances, CBS 8 found that those bills can remain in that investigative pile for months, sometimes as long as a year before sending the bill to the homeowner. And when the bill does finally arrive, the amounts are in the thousands, on occasion more than $10,000.
In addition, millions of gallons of fresh, potable water could potentially escape into sewers in the months that transpire prior to the homeowner learning that they have a leak on their property.
That was the case for Eric Einstein in San Carlos. On Tuesday, August 15, CBS 8 spoke to Einstein about the $11,000 bill he received after repeated calls to the city complaining about missing water bills. During that time, Einstein says more than 3,000 gallons of water were leaking from underground pipes at his home.
After running the story, several other residents reached out to CBS 8 with similar complaints of missing or unusually high water bills. They, like Einstein, say traversing the city's process in hopes of resolving the issue has not been smooth sailing.
Devin Walker is a homeowner in Mission Hills. After not receiving a water bill for eight months, he says he suddenly came home to an exorbitant water bill.
"It was $5,500," said Walker.
So, he called San Diego's Public Utilities Department.
"They gave me some excuse that they held back the bill because they saw an exorbitant usage and they needed to investigate it; which makes no sense at all. Why do they hold it? It’s the most counterintuitive thing ever," Walker says.
He is now taking it upon himself to make sure this doesn’t happen again, even purchasing his own devices to accurately read water meters.
"I actually bought a device. It is called the Flume Smart Home Water Meter. It sits on the meter and I can monitor myself. I did the government's work for them. I thought there might be an underground leak. I had a sprinkler specialist come by and I also hired several pool technicians," said Walker.
Walker says the City lowered his bill to around $3,500, but he still has not received any new water bills in the mail.
Walker isn’t the only one.
CBS 8 received more emails of water bill complaints.
David Brisebois who lives in City Heights says he didn’t get any bills for an entire year and received all his bills at once.
"They sent me all six bills at one time. It was $900. I thought it was not nice," said Brisebois. "They send it to you all in one shot; that’s just rude. If they are short on people, then send it anyways, no reason to hold. No reason, nothing!"
He went to the Public Utilities Department to find out why his bills were held for so long and never sent to him. He tells me they couldn’t find his account.
"It's ridiculous. We put a man on the moon. We should be able to find the damn bill. I was just flabbergasted," said Brisebois.
And lastly, Todd Mummert, a plumber by trade, says something needs to change immediately.
"I think it's neglect on part of the city. They are too lazy and not well enough staffed or prepare to do what their supposed to," said Mummert.
"It better not happen again," said Brisebois.
In hopes of finding out why these bills are getting set aside and what the city is doing to resolve this, CBS 8 contacted Mayor Todd Gloria's Office.
Gloria's office, however, referred us back to the Public Utilities Department.
Left without answers, CBS 8 is looking to get to the bottom of the issue and is requesting an interview with San Diego Public Utility Department Director Juan Guerreiro. The city has not yet granted that request.
We will continue to press Mayor Gloria as well and let you know what happens. We also called the Water Department's customer service line ourselves. After sitting through several prompts that they are experiencing "longer than normal wait times," we eventually did get an actual person to pick up after 42 minutes.
If you’ve received an unusually high bill recently or haven’t received one at all or if you are having difficulties getting through to the Public Utilities Department to try and resolve a billing issue, let us know by emailing workingforyou@cbs8.com.
Watch Related: San Diego holds water bill for nearly a year to investigate, without notifying homeowner (Aug 15, 2023)
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