SEATTLE — Several condos in Seattle’s Queen Anne neighborhood had a water issue no one expected to deal with: mud water coming from the faucets.
“I turn on the water and there’s mud coming out of our bathtub faucet. Mud!” Marie Howie, who lives in Queen Anne, said.
Howie says that was the reality for more than 32 hours in mid-January when Seattle Public Utility crews were installing new fire hydrants near Warren Avenue North. Something went wrong, causing mud and other debris to get in their water.
“Very discolored with sediment. In fact, I still have one of the sediment samples,” Howie said.
She says crews then asked her building to run their water to flush out the mud. She says they had their water running for hours until it was all gone, but she did have a major question about it: Would they have to pay for the extra water usage in their next bill?
“I’m like what do we do about all of this excessive water usage? He’s like here is a claim for damages form, submit this and work with the people on this more,” Howie said.
She says the SPU crews on site were very helpful with that process. She says she filed the claim quickly, but then her building got the monthly water bill, which showed an additional $800 in water use.
“What make me sad about all of this is that everyone has tough times and I am pressing for this bill because everybody’s on a budget and I am doggedly determined to get something recovered from this,” Howie said.
Howie has been trying to get her money back ever since that bill came in and has been back and forth with SPU to get this solved. She says it shouldn’t be their responsibility to pay all that money after an SPU issue caused all of this and claims it has been a roller coaster process. However, what really has her frustrated is that she was told by some within SPU that they aren’t refunding her or covering any expenses.
“SPU is not responsible to reimburse you for any excessive water use because of an SPU issue,” Howie said.
Seattle Public Utilities sent KIRO 7 several statements below about what happened:
“Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) appreciates hearing about this resident’s concerns and questions. On February 18, this resident communicated with an SPU customer service representative throughout the day to discuss the matter. In early February, this resident contacted SPU to inquire about January’s bill. Given the details of this case, a bill credit for this resident’s extra use of water in January was submitted on February 14. The SPU customer service representative explained to the resident that this credit request will go to the Utility’s billing department for processing.”
Flushing water lines is covered by residents because it typically should only take a few minutes to do so. In this case, Seattle Public Utilities (SPU) is offering this resident a bill credit because of the amount of time spent on flushing this water line. SPU understands that this amount of time affected the resident’s January water bill.
SPU wants to ensure that this resident’s concerns are addressed and that this matter is resolved promptly. We recognize that frustration can come with these situations.
In general, SPU is responsible for providing clean drinking water for residents in the Seattle region. There are times when infrastructure repairs need to be made to ensure that residents can have reliable access to clean drinking water for the future.”
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