Audit of Atlanta water meters finds need for repairs widespread; bills to be reviewed

An audit of more than 160,000 water meters in the city of Atlanta could call into question the accuracy of thousands of water and sewer bills.

About 90,000 residential water meters needed repairs of some kind. Some of the defects, such as cracked lids, would be unlikely to affect bills. But city officials say they are trying to determine how many residents may have been overcharged.

Only about 30 percent of the audited meters were problem-free, according to preliminary results obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through an open records request.

"Where we have identified problems, we have been and will be proactive in rectifying them," said Hans Utz, the city's deputy chief operating officer. "We are committed to identifying what the issues were and how we can make it right."

Atlanta officials are anxious to show that the city's billing for water and sewer services is accurate and trustworthy. Laboring under some of the country's highest rates to pay for $2 billion in sewer upgrades required by federal regulators, Atlanta residents have complained for years about readings they say are improbable.

City officials stress that they are still gathering and crunching data, and that thousands of meters have not been inspected yet. The audit is scheduled to be finished on Aug. 22.

The accounts of people who were overbilled will be credited. And, if the audit finds evidence of inaccurate readings, residents won't have to take their cases to Atlanta's Water Sewer Appeals Board, Utz said. Many residents who have gone to the appeals board have called the process confusing, frustrating and arbitrary.

Blayne Beacham, who lives in a three-bedroom house off Moores Mill Road, fought an escalating water bill that skyrocketed to more than $9,000 after late fees and penalties were applied. Beacham said the problem started last July, when she got a $497 water bill instead of her usual bill of about $100.

Lauren Patrus, 28, said she got hit with a $216.27 bill in July, almost $150 higher than the monthly average in her East Lake home.

"Our habits haven't changed at all, much less that significantly," she said. "I did the math and, unless we have an invisible leak that is spewing out 175 gallons of water a day that we have managed to not notice, this just doesn't make any sense."

Patrus said she was stuck in a dilemma: pay the bill in full, then go through a time-consuming appeals process to try to get a refund, or incur late fees.

"I know that several of my neighbors have simply given up and paid their outrageous bills," she said. "At this point we are torn. We are just one example of far too many citizens that are forced to pay too much."

The audit came five years after the start of a $35 million project to install electronic meter reading throughout Atlanta's water system. That project was supposed to improve the accuracy of bills, identify potential leaks and cut the time it takes to read individual meters.

Atlanta's residential water meters now transmit radio signals indicating how much water the property uses. That data is eventually transmitted to the billing system through data collectors such as handheld devices. DeKalb County uses a similar system of electronic meters with handheld sensors, but many of Atlanta's neighbors — including Cobb, Cherokee and Gwinnett counties — do not.

In Atlanta, reports of problems, such as faulty readings from upside-down antennas, surfaced soon after the expensive changeover to automated meter reading.

"We were getting an awful lot of calls about billing problems," Utz acknowledged. "That triggered this audit. We are fixing things as we go."

Atlanta's 11-month audit by outside contractors Arcadis/BPA and JP2 began on Sept. 19, 2011. The $2.4 million cost does not include the expense to repair or replace meters or lids. As of Wednesday, 77,415 meters had been repaired, with another 12,941 repairs scheduled.