Pacific Grove, CA Seniors Seeing Outrageous And Inexplicable Water Bills

View From A Non-Profit Serving Carmel, Carmel Valley, Gonzalez, Greenfield, King City, Marina, Monterey, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Salinas, Seaside And Soledad California

Stories seem to appear in the paper on a daily basis about seniors being taken advantage of financially, although this usually relates to elder abuse.  I was shocked to read the story in the Monterey Herald about a number of recent overbilling problems with Cal Am Water where management appears to have been less than sympathetic when seniors called in about astronomical water bills.  The first was about the widow of the late San Francisco 49ers Coach Bill Walsh, who received a bill for more than $5,000 for water at a house in Pacific Grove that she doesn't even live in full time.  She uses it as a place to go for respite from her assisted living facility.  It's one of a number of bills she has received recently that have been over $1,000 per month and she has complained repeatedly about them for months.  But Cal Am insists she used 84,000 gallons of water in one month.  "We found in this case that the meter is working and there were no leaks," Cal Am Spokeswoman Catherine Bowie told the Monterey Herald.  This, despite the fact that when her son Craig Walsh called Cal Am, another person told him that if that much water were being leaked, the house would have broken off and floated away.  Someone at the water company suggested he put a lock on the faucets because he may be the victim of water theft.  However, he's skeptical someone could have driven up with a water truck and taken the time to load 84,000 gallons of water into a tank with no neighbors seeing this take place.  Pacific Grove police told the Herald they couldn't recall any cases of residential water theft here.  In another unrelated case, Tony Ray in Carmel Valley received a bill in February for $9,800 for using 203,000 gallons of water in one month.  After negotiating with Cal Am, they agreed to reduce the bill to a still massive $2,400, more than 3x what she usually pays for an entire year of water.  Cal Am has tiered rates where high usage costs 10x the amount of the normal low rate.  "They dropped it down to around $2,400 and I just finished paying them off.  It's really changed my lifestyle.  That was kind of a big thing out of your Social Security check.  I had my plumber go underneath my house and he found nothing," she said.  Cal Am inspectors took her meter away and said it was tested and that it worked fine.  They refused to allow her to have someone not related to Cal Am inspect the meter.  I think this is ridiculous.  Meters can and do malfunction.  Someone facing this sort of an outrageous water bill should be able to hire outside experts to challenge it.  Unfortunately, situations like these leaves the person with no recourse.  They either pay the bill or Cal Am will shut their water off.

Please note that this blog reflects my personal opinion and may or may not reflect the opinion of HandsTo Help Seniors and the individual members comprising the Board of Governors.