193 Thousand Gallons of Unused Water

A family in Royal Oak says the city got their water bill way wrong, and won't do anything about it... 

The Powers ive on Donald Street in Royal Oak and they received a water bill for more than $3,600. The bill says they used roughly 193,000 gallons in three months.

FOX 2 contacted Royal Oak City Manager Don Johnson last week. Johnson said the Powers house likely had a leak.

"He says this must have been from a running hose or a leaky toilet."

"Um, no. That did not happen," said Powers. "The city engineer found nothing. He checked the toilet, checked for leaks around the house and he said there wasn't any."

Johnson later said that a meter supervisor determined the Powers' water meter in their basement wasn't matching the remote display outside of their home. But Thursday, Johnson says that supervisor looked at the wrong account.

"Every customer is responsible for the water that flows through the meter," Johnson said. "The meter is accurate. There's no doubt about that."

Johnson was unwilling to answer FOX 2's questions on-camera, instead reading a statement adding that the meter's accuracy is "99.6 percent."

"Even though they didn't find any issues with anything, they switched the meter," Powers said.

FOX 2: "And since the meter has been switched, what's your bill?"

"The bill is back to normal," Powers said.

For the video and more go to :

http://www.fox2detroit.com/news/local-news/royal-oak-stands-by-family-s-3-600-water-bill-says-it-used-193k-gallons