Evening star., 1933-06-23
WATER CONSUMERS
MAKE NEW RECORD
IN BILL COMPLAINTS
Registrar Grove Reports
SevenfoId Increase Over
Normal Run.
LESS THAN | PER CENT
HELD TO BE JUSTIFIED
Work of Investigation Causes De-
partment to Drop Maintenance
and Requirements.

Thirty-f1ve per cent of Washington S
water consumers have complained that
their bills. were too high this fiscal year,
a seven-fold increase over the normal
run of complaints from about per cent
of the customers per annum, Water
Registrar E. H. Grove said today
Mr. Grove said that of the complaints,
something less than per cent turned
out on investigation to be justified.
The office does not keep statistics on
complaints, but Mr. Grove said that
the task of investigating complaints has
now reached such large proportions
that with the present force, it VIII be
necessary to abandon most maintenance
work and all requirements on meters
for 1884.
$4,000 Pending.
There is pending before the director
Of the budget request for $4,000 OF
the funds received from water con-
sumers for maintenance of water
meters. If the director of the budget
should turn this request down, Mr.
Grove said, he would be compelled to
reduce his maintenance and installation
division from 40 men to 5. This would
allow him to use the division only for
complaint work, with enough over to
attend to about half of the leaks that
will develop during the next year.
The program, started in 1881, which
was intended to put all water services
In thr District on meter basis by 1886,
struck bad snag when the Congress
cut the regular appropriation from
$l30,000, its level since 1881, to S10,-
600 for 1884.
There are at present 99,792 customers
of the Water Department. of whom
SO, 8,422 are on meters. OF these, hcw-
ever, 9,770 meters are not registering.
Where meters go out of order and stop
registering, the customer is put on the
minimum meter rate of s8.75, which in
practically al, cases is an advantage to
the individual customer, although a
disadvantage to the water revenues in
general.
Non-registering meters enter into the
complaints because persons with meters
working properly object to paying more
for their water than neighbors with
cn-registering meters paying the min
imum bill. DR.. Grove took from the
files. a specific complaint where a bill
had risen from $1155 In one year to
Sl6.8S in the next, while the COM
plainant's next-door neighbor, said to
use about the same amount of water,
paid S8.75 beth years. In this case, he
pointed out, the meter charge was cor
rect. but the next-door neighbor was
probably getting lot of free water be-
cause the department had not yet got
around to replacing his dead meter.
May Change Meters.
If the director of the budget should
grant the $4,000 item, it will then be
possible to reduce slightly the number
OF non-registering meters, but it will be
impossible to put in any new meters
where the customers are now charged
. fiat rate.
When the meter program got under
way in 1881, there were 97.792 Gus
toners, of whom 81 ,381 were on meters,
but Of those meters 14,725 were not
registering The service was then 85.4
per cent metered, and the metering has
now risen to 1876 per cent. This lat
ter figure, however. is about 81 per
cent behind the program, due largely
TO the amount of work necessary on
complaints this year.
Mr.. Grove said many customers could
be saved their large bills If the meter
reading division could be increased
sufficiently to allow readings four to
six times year. At present the %
men in this division have difficulty
q
year. Thus a leak can go unnoticed
for long time before the customers
attention is called to it by the size of
his bill.
The enormous increase in the COM
plants Mr.. Grove attributed TO the
depression, which has caused water
users to complain of increases in their
bills Of as little as 7 cents.
Probes Held Extensive
The work involved in investigating
complaints, Mr.. Grove said, is the most
expensive his department is called on to
do. Where complaint is received. an
effort is made to inspect the meter the
same day. This results in sending
readers to widely-scat attered sections Of
the city, at added costs in time and
transportation.
The preliminary meter readings are
done by localities, and it is possible for
one man to make 200 readings a day.
The same man. however could only in
vestigate small handful of complaints
in one day unless they happened to come
from the same neighborhood.
Assuming that the budget director
authorizes the $4,000 item, Mr.. Grove
estimated, it would be possible to re-
duce the number of dead meters to
about 1000 by the close of 1884 and
TO complete this part of the meter pro-
gram on such schedule in 1886 The
program Of placing meters where there
are now no meters, however, has been
definitely disrupted and it is impossible
to forecast when this will be carried
thrc:Sh. II the budget director de-
clines. then both parts of the program
will go by the board
The money requested to be spent is
the Districts own money. paid in by
water users and kept in a separate
fund. Congress. however. arbitrarily
limited the amounts to be spent above
the greatly reduced appropriations to
$685., 900 and made the budget director