Water meters accurate

District ran audit after complaints of overbilling

A water district that serves 16,000 homes in Coral Springs and Parkland has completed an audit that examined whether anything was wrong with new water meters used to bill cusrately The audit finding: The new meters are working properly and giving accurate readings.

The North Springs ImprovementDistrictcommissionedthe audit at the request of a county commissioner who was getting hundreds of complaints from residents of skyrocketing bills, often by hundreds of dollars.

Rod Colon, deputy district manager of the North Springs Improvement District, said his agencywent “above and beyond and no other utility has ever done an audit like this.”

The agency said it replaced 14,000 water meters that were aged withnewonesmore than a year ago.

That’s when the complaints started trickling in.

The old meters stopped working properly, resulting in customers using more water than what the meters showed, he said. As a result, the district lost years of revenue because water usage wasn’t being accutomers. recorded.

“It’s absolutely impossible for the meters to overbill” as they age, Colon said.

Now, residents “have to get used to accurate meters,” said Colon, who has blamed leaky pipes and residents who water their lawns too much for their high bills. “Every utility has been through the same shock” when meters are changed, he said.