Prairie Grove OKs Discount For Major Water Leak

PRAIRIE GROVE -- A city residential water customer who received a bill for $4,600 due to an unknown leak will get some relief through an ordinance recently approved by Prairie Grove City Council.

Council members approved an ordinance at its May 18 meeting with provisions for a "water leak billing abatement." The ordinance is retroactive for 60 days and had an emergency clause attached, making it effective immediately.

The measure applies to city residential water customers who encounter a large leak through no fault of their own and allows a one-time reduction in rates to lessen the impact of a high utility bill.

It is the result of a local resident who lost 750,000 gallons of water because of an unknown leak and approached city aldermen seeking some relief. The customer received a bill for $4,600 for April.

"This is the largest leak I've experienced from a residential customer," said Larry Oelrich, director of administrative services and public works. "He didn't dispute the bill or the amount of water. He didn't know he had a leak."

The leak has now been repaired.

Oelrich looked at policies from other cities and found some cities offered forgiveness and others did not.

Prairie Grove's ordinance for an abatement is available if a residential customer experiences a water leak resulting in the use of more than 50,000 gallons of water for a billing cycle. The customer will pay the full rate for the first 50,000 gallons and would be billed at 60 percent of the existing rate for any amounts over 50,000 gallons.

The abatement is only available to a resident one time.

Council members agreed to make the ordinance retroactive so that the customer with the high April bill would be able to use a one-time abatement. This will reduce the customer's bill to $2,900, Oelrich said. The city already has an internal policy that allows customers 12 months to pay off the exorbitant costs of a water leak, along with paying the regular monthly bill.

Oelrich said he is "kinda a fence straddler" when it comes to a situ-