The Water Bill Blues

Selectman Anthony Cogliano questions the accuracy of a potential $7,000 water bill he worries he may have to pay

By Mark E. Vogler

During the members’ motion period of Tuesday night’s Board of Selectmen’s meeting, Vice Chair Anthony Cogliano went on a rant about an astronomical water bill he said he just got hit with. “Seven thousand dollars for water,” Cogliano grumbled.

Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree noted, “That’s a lot.”

“And that’s insane,” Cogliano replied.

“There’s no way in hell that my water bill is $7,000 for the year, but it’s going to prove to be that way,” “Cogliano told his colleagues.

Complaints about excessive water bills surface periodically, as town property owners show up to register their complaints during a Citizens’ Comment period of the selectmen’s meetings. Board members are usually sympathetic, but are powerless to act on the citizens’ behalf. The residents wind up getting referred to Wendy Hatch, the town’s Finance Director & Treasurer / Collector. She or somebody in her office briefs them on the process they must go through to appeal the bill or seek an abatement.

So it is that Cogliano recently found himself in the same situation of frustrated Saugus residents who have shared their water bill blues stories with selectmen in recent years. Cogliano said a previous water bill he had came out to $1,900, prompted him to go see Wendy Hatch and also consult with the town’s Department of Public Works.

He said he went ahead and did tablet tests in all of the toilets of his house and determined there would be no future problems. “Even though there were no leaks, I still replaced all of the internal parts on the toilets and this time my bill was $3,500,” Cogliano said, noting that the town sends out water bills twice a year, increasing the total bill to $7,000.

“I have no idea what’s going on with the water bills,” Cogliano said.

He said he feels the frustration not only for himself, but for several residents that called him on Tuesday (March 24) before the board’s meeting. “There’s quite a few comments on Facebook regarding the bills. I have a friend, an 86-year-old man who lives by himself on Highland Avenue. His water bill went from $200 to $1,100.”

“So, something is not right,” he said. Cogliano said he planned to consult with Hatch on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, he told selectmen and Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree that his water meter is scheduled to be replaced with a new one next Tuesday (March 31). “I spoke to some of the guys at the DPW and they said they can send the [old] meter out for a test,” he said.

Town Manager Crabtree said the town is in the process of replacing all of the water meters with new ones. “I think there’s quite a few residents now throughout the town who have new meters,” Crabtree said.

“I don’t know if it’s an issue with the meters. I’m not an expert on it,” he said.

“The expense of the leak when people have a legitimate leak is very high. They think it’s shocking,” he said.

Crabtree reminded Cogliano about the process for contesting a water bill and also mentioned about tests that can be done by an independent company to determine whether a water meter is faulty. “I think we’ve done that quite a few times and none of them have come back that were faulty. I think we had one that had something to do with an ERT on the top of the meter,” Crabtree said.

But he added that the usual result of a test is that the water meter was not faulty. And often there were leaks that the homeowner didn’t know about, according to Crabtree. “I don’t know of any of them coming back faulty,” he said.

“People had a leak, but they didn’t know they had a leak. They even had plumbers certifying that they didn’t have a leak and we’d check and you’d see a truck digging up the sprinkler system because they actually had a leak with the sprinklers all winter. Every case is different. I’m not involved in that department,” the town manager said. “There’s an abatement process. They have a form. They send out the water department to inspect the meter and possibly change it over. So, there is a process and that’s how it’s handled.”

There is one high-profile case of a Saugus homeowner disgruntled about his high water bill repeatedly complaining about it – and prevailing. In February of 2021, then-Precinct 6 Town Meeting Member William S. Brown got a $1,075 water bill cut in half after complaining about a broken water meter. Town officials had said at the time that residential water users would receive an average increase to an average bill of $482 twice a year – or $18 total – by approving the water rate increase. But it irked Brown when he learned he would be paying $2,150 for the year – more than twice the average annual bill because of billing that was based on the use of a busted water meter.

“There’s no reason on earth why the water bill should jump like this,” Brown complained in an interview with The Saugus Advocate before the town acknowledged the problem and reimbursed him.

Currently, the average residential user pays $594 twice a year, under a six percent increase approved 38-5 by last year’s Annual Town Meeting. Cogliano expects he will be paying considerably more, while insisting that his house has been leak free. “It’s going to be alarming that my water bill is higher than my tax bill. That’s certainly going to be the case,” he told his colleagues.

“You must have low taxes. We have to check that,” Crabtree quipped, a comment that drew laughter.

Cogliano is not optimistic about getting his old water meter tested. “The problem is – take me out of the equation – if someone’s meter is faulty, and they send it out, it’s not going to come back. Nobody is going to say that meter was faulty,” he said.

Cogliano promised to release the results of the test. “In closing, just for the public, following along with the water bill saga, I will let you know what the outcome is if they test my meter and how it comes back,” he said.

Board of Selectmen Chair Debra Panetta thanked Cogliano for his closing remarks. “I appreciate that,” she said.