Sunset Beach residents discover costly water bill issues

Cape Fear is not the only utility authority having billing problems. Eighteen Brunswick Utility customers in Sunset Beach are drowning in this months water bills.

Jim Thomas was shocked when he received a water bill for more than $2,200. That is a total usage of more than 700,000 gallons of water. Thomas is now questioning how the utility authority checks his monthly water use.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever had anybody come by and physically read the meter. They have a radio frequency thing that transmits so they can do a drive by reading and apparently that system is prone to some mistakes,” Thomas said.

A spokesperson for the utility authority told us they found a glitch with transmitters installed within the last year. When they sent out updated bills the error made the bills much higher than they should have been.

The authority said they will not charge any of the affected customers late fees, or shut off their water until the matter is resolved.

They expect to have the corrected bills completed by Thursday.