Chicago to create program to offer relief from water bills that spiked due to underground leaks
CHICAGO (CBS) -- The City Council on Wednesday passed Mayor Brandon Johnson's plan to offer help to homeowners and businesses who have seen their water bills spike due to underground leaks.
The unanimous vote will create a two-year Water Leak Relief pilot program that would allow eligible homeowners and business owners to have their bills fixed and obtain refunds if they can show they were getting hosed by higher water bills due to leaks in underground service lines.
The program is open to owners of single-family homes, two-flats, three-flats, and businesses with water service lines one inch in size or smaller.
During a Finance Committee hearing on the program last week, City Comptroller Chase Rehwinkle said some people in Chicago have had their water bills go from about $200 or $300 a month to as much as $10,000 a month due to underground leaks they couldn't possibly have known about.
CBS 2 Investigators have been reporting this problem for years, and one alderman thanked CBS 2 Investigator Brad Edwards for exposing it.
"It's because of their reporting that I was made aware of this issue and that residents were facing that finally pushed the City Council to take action," Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th) said.
As the City Council approved the plan on Wednesday, Villegas recognized some of the victims whose stories CBS 2 has told in the Getting Hosed series – by name.
"Today is for Scott Rosenzweig, who was charged $34,000. Today is for Andrea Garner, charged $80,000," Villegas said. "Today is for every single Chicagoan who has had their lives disrupted by price gouging by the City of Chicago."
Edwards started the "Getting Hosed" series, but Megan Hickey and others on the CBS 2 Investigators team have since joined in.
The pattern would be the same. The city would fix the bill CBS 2 brought to their attention – but there would be no explanation, and worse, there were no policy changes—until now.
To qualify for the Water Leak Relief program, anyone who has seen a mysterious spike in their water bill must have a city inspector check their water system for a leak. If a leak is found in the underground service line, they would then be able to have their water bill adjusted to the average amount of their bill before the leak.
"This is the first step, but definitely not the last step," said Villegas.
For those who have already paid higher water bills due to a leak, they would be given the choice of either a refund or a credit to their account to cover future bills.
The pilot program will start on Jan. 1, 2025, and will end on Dec. 31, 2026, but could be extended if it proves successful. The program would cover water bills tied to underground leaks repaired on or after Jan. 1, 2023.
"The good thing is this ordinance is going to go back one year, so the people that in 2023 were impacted will have the ability to petition for this," Villegas said.
Rehwinkel said the program is estimated to cost $572,000 in administrative costs and $2.35 million in lost revenue from bill adjustments—only a small fraction of the approximately $1.2 billion the city earns every year from water bills.
Several aldermen urged the Johnson administration to consider expanding the program to cover bills affected by water leaks that were discovered before Jan. 1, 2023.
Rehwinkel said he's open to talking to aldermen about ways to expand the program.
