Ward 5 DC Water town hall meeting -- Thursday, 04/26/2012

From DC Water's Aleizha Batson:

Our General Manager is hosting the DC Water town hall meeting in Ward 5 on April 26, 2012 from 6:30 pm-8:30 pm at Luke C Moore Academy, 1001 Monroe Street, NE.

As in years past, we will have staff on hand to discuss:

*Water Quality
*Construction projects in Ward 5
*DC Clean Rivers (Long Term Control Plan)
*Catch Basins
*Water Mains and Fire Hydrants
*Jobs at DC Water
*Customer Service

John Salatti: sandbags and the cleaning of catch basins

See this message from ANC 5C04 Commissioner John Salatti:

Hi, Everyone,

To be prepared for possible strong storms this weekend, Emily Roderer and I have been working together to ensure that Bloomingdale in general and the Thomas-T Street NW low areas specifically are ready. She contacted DPW yesterday about whether sandbags will be made available in advance and I contacted DC Water about having the catch basins in Bloomingdale inspected and cleaned this week.

Emily was told that no decision had been made as of yesterday about sandbags, but she is staying tuned about that. DC Water has been very responsive and sent a truck into Bloomingdale yesterday to start looking at catch basins, and I will be meeting with the crew supervisor today to find out how things are going and which basins may have needed extra cleaning.

If you know of a drain that seem particularly prone to not draining well, please let me know, and I`ll double check with DC Water.

So we are moving ahead to do whatever we can before Hurricane Irene arrives this weekend. Please take care, stay safe, check in with neighbors, especially those who are seniors who may have trouble getting around and those who are not connected to the Internet. Let me know if you are aware of any specific problems or needs any one has.

Have a great day,
John

update on exorbitantly high DC Water bill

From the Thomas Street NW resident who initially reported the issue:

As follow up to my previous note about the exorbitant water bill, it turns out the my bill of $1,700 is to cover the last 2.5 years. While I was paying for water service and other charges each month during that period, I did not realize that I was not paying for water itself. It appears that I may not be the only person on Thomas St who is suddenly making a large arrears payment. See note from WASA below:

Begin forwarded message:

Good Afternoon:

I have just spoken with our Customer Services Department on your issue, and it appears that Commissioner Salatti is correct in that DC Water in fact installed new water meters on your street approximately 2.5 years ago. These newly installed meters, unfortunately, were not calculating your actual water usage, thus fees were the only thing being assessed during this time. As this is the case, you`d been receiving water without payment for usage of water during this time. While our Customer Services Department is certainly not absolved from its responsibility to properly meter the usage of water by our customers, this payment is nonetheless accurate as it does reflect the non-payment for water service received during this time frame.

In many of these cases, as yours is not alone, our Customer Services Department offers customers an optional payment plan as a method by which to make payments; alternately, customers may elect to appeal a water bill, which is done through the filing of an appeal form with our Customer Services Department. If you choose to file an appeal, please let me know and I will have our Customer Services Department send you the required appeal form.

I do sincerely apologize for this convenience, and please let me know if there is anything else that I can do.

Emanuel D. Briggs Coordinator, Construction Outreach, Public Affairs District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority emanuel.briggs@dcwater.com
5000 Overlook Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20032 (202)
787-2003 (202) 341-7952 (cell) (202) 787-2210 (fax)

Thomas St NW household receives exorbitant DC Water bill

See this message from a Thomas Street NW resident:

I just got billed for 1,160 days of water service, with an automatic deduction form my bank account of $1,700. Has anyone else had this happen to them?