Metro

Water hearing turns into a $oak opera

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A hearing about overcharges in the city’s water system took a surprise twist yesterday when Assemblyman David Weprin suddenly produced an inflated bill for his own home and handed it to the Department of Environmental Protection official testifying in defense of the system.

“I actually just got a water bill,” Weprin informed Associate Commissioner Matt Mahoney at the end of a six-minute attack on his agency. “[It’s] actually three times what it should have been.”

Weprin (D-Queens) said he’d been paying about $400 every three months in water and sewer charges for his one-family home in Holliswood, and was startled a couple of days ago to get a bill for about $1,300.

Since he had signed up to get alerts when his water usage spiked, Weprin said he was puzzled not to hear from anyone in the city — especially because he delivered the alert request personally to Mahoney at a neighborhood forum a year ago.

But after complaining about his bill, Weprin conceded he might have sprung a leak — in his lawn- sprinkler system. Still, the lawmaker complained he shouldn’t have to pay it because he didn’t get any alerts.

Mahoney later explained that alerts are issued only when water consumption jumps at least 300 percent for five or more days, and he suggested that Weprin’s sprinklers might not have been on often enough to activate the warning.

Mahoney was on the hot seat for more than 90 minutes at the hearing, convened by Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who presented the DEP with 326 individual complaints about unfair bills.

One case was nightmarish: A Queens grocer faced a shocking $20,000 charge after routinely paying $1,000 for water. It turned out his meter had been set incorrectly, resulting in undercharges that were then all billed at once.

Despite that dramatic error, Mahoney insisted the automated meter reading system was working well and that most of the gripes came from those who used to get automated bills and were now paying for actual usage.

The automated system produces four readings a day for each meter that are transmitted wirelessly to the DEP.

“We issue over 3 million bills a year,” Mahoney told de Blasio. “What you’ve brought to our attention is roughly 300 bills.”

Officials said customers filed 6,220 complaints in the fiscal year ending June 30, the lowest number in the last five years. There were 10,266 complaints the prior year.

But de Blasio said the city’s assurances don’t jibe with the more than 500 angry complaints that have flooded into his office.

“Revenue is now the new false idol,” he said, charging that the city is more interested in making money than in fixing problems.

“I respectfully disagree with that,” countered Mahoney. “It’s not a systemic, endemic problem we’re seeing.”