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phantom power

(25,966 posts)
Mon Feb 10, 2014, 10:24 AM Feb 2014

West Virginia families, billed for smelly water they didn’t use, bill water company right back

The chemical spill in West Virginia has left thousands of people near Charleston with licorice-scented tap water that they’re afraid to use, despite the assurances of government and their water company.

West Virginia American Water promised customers a credit on their bills for the water homeowners needed to use to flush their pipes of contamination. But when many received their January bills, the credit was no where to be found, ThinkProgress reported. And some bills showed hundreds of gallons of water use that homeowners claimed as impossible even with the flushing, given how circumspect their water use had been since the January 9 contamination of the Elk River with 10,000 gallons of Crude MCHM.

So, about a hundred people marched Saturday to the offices of West Virginia American Water to present the company with invoices for the water they’ve had to buy on the open market, along with their ancillary expenses.

...

The water company asked customers to flush their pipes twice last month. During those flushes, customers were asked to leave their water on for 25 minutes, a process that WVAM said should use at most 500 gallons of water. A 1000-gallon credit for homeowners and 2000-gallon credit should have appeared on bills this month, WVAM President Jeff McIntyre told ThinkProgress.

But several people approached ThinkProgress with their bills, showing no credit and inexplicably-increased water usage.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/02/09/west-virginia-families-billed-for-smelly-water-they-didnt-use-bill-water-company-right-back/
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West Virginia families, billed for smelly water they didn’t use, bill water company right back (Original Post) phantom power Feb 2014 OP
Blatant Lying, here? Who would have thought it? Demeter Feb 2014 #1
More than likely their computers automatically billed NV Whino Feb 2014 #2
Oh, yeah,,,,,, MyOwnPeace Feb 2014 #3
Didn't the chemical plant scurry for cover under a bankruptcy filing? calimary Feb 2014 #4
Yeah, they covered their tushes with bankruptcy NV Whino Feb 2014 #7
I Was Wondering About Those Bills... BodieTown Feb 2014 #5
Join together and organize perdita9 Feb 2014 #6
I stand with West Virginians marions ghost Feb 2014 #8

NV Whino

(20,886 posts)
2. More than likely their computers automatically billed
Mon Feb 10, 2014, 11:11 AM
Feb 2014

I've had a similar experience with credit card and phone bills. The service rep agrees to a credit, but the computers continue on their merry way and charge, not only the initial amount, but interest and a late charge when you don't pay.

And they should be billing the chemical plant, not the water company, for extra water they had to buy.

MyOwnPeace

(16,928 posts)
3. Oh, yeah,,,,,,
Mon Feb 10, 2014, 12:50 PM
Feb 2014

and the chemical president will step out and say,

"Hey, we've had a tough few months here. Give us a break. We have bills to pay too!"

BodieTown

(147 posts)
5. I Was Wondering About Those Bills...
Mon Feb 10, 2014, 01:12 PM
Feb 2014

...water bills in the West are horrendous, and if you are essentially ordered to flush your system of poisoned water, YOU are paying the price of the poisoning.

It just never stops, does it?

marions ghost

(19,841 posts)
8. I stand with West Virginians
Mon Feb 10, 2014, 04:15 PM
Feb 2014

who are NOT putting up with this...

From OP article:

"So, about a hundred people marched Saturday to the offices of West Virginia American Water to present the company with invoices for the water they’ve had to buy on the open market, along with their ancillary expenses.

Their invoices leave space to estimate the cost of lost wages and profits from when businesses closed, extra school costs, sewage bills from flushing pipes and the cost of additional taxes they’ll be forced to pay to manage the crisis, the West Virginia Gazette reported. Brooke Drake, of Charleston, told the Gazette that she estimated that the water crisis has cost her $290, mostly in gas and hours lost picking up bottled water."

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