The Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans says it will move away from estimated bills and begin relying once again on workers reading water meters.
“We use estimates when we can’t get to every meter, whether because of bad weather or, in this case, because of the impact of COVID-19 on our meter-reading workforce,” Executive Director Ghassan Korban said. “But we understand that estimated bills can be a source of frustration for our customers. Our eventual goal is to only use estimates as a last resort so that we can improve our customers’ confidence they are receiving accurate bills.”
In a statement, the SWBNO said that the COVID-19 pandemic reduced their workforce down to just 20 active meter readers so the department had to rely on estimating customer water usage which frustrated many customers who say the bills they received were inaccurate as a result. They say about 40 percent of their customers had estimated bills from March through May.
The statement says, “The SWBNO team has set as its goal a return to its pre-COVID emergency estimation rate – less than 20 percent of all bills – by Aug. 1. It will do so by, aggressively filling the 10 existing vacancies in the meter-reading workforce and open 10 new meter-reading positions for applicants. Once filled, these additional positions will bring the total meter-reading staff to 92.”
Anyone interested in applying for the open water meter reader jobs can apply online.
The SWBNO also says, “Should you receive an estimated bill, please be aware that it uses a formula built to best predict how much water you use based on what you used previously. If previous rates of water use are unavailable, the estimate will be based on the typical average use for residential properties of 170 gallons a day. Estimations are standard practice in every city and across all American water utilities.”
The estimated bills will be corrected on customers’ next billing cycle where the amount difference will be credited. This also goes for bills estimated to be too low, meaning some customers could see an increase in their next accurate water bill.