Opening Council-related bills is rarely a pleasant experience, but when Ocean Shores resident Robert Birch opened his water bill a few months ago he got a particularly nasty surprise.
The local man, who has a science background, discovered that his water bill had blown out massively without him increasing his water use in any way.
Further investigation revealed that a concealed leak in the main line supplying his house had resulted in 800,000 litres of water pouring into the ground beneath his front yard over a two-year period.
With ongoing wet weather hiding any evidence of the leak at ground level, and Mr Birch’s prior water bills being paid via direct debit, he had no idea what was happening until a dry period in May finally brought a suspicious wet patch to his attention.
A few days later, more than two years after the leak began, he received a notice of higher than usual water usage from Byron Council.
$2,800 water bill issued
This notice was not accompanied by a waiver of the Mr Birch’s swollen water bills, which he now estimates to have totalled $2,800. This is on top of the cost of repairing the leak.
‘In following this up I discovered that there was no policy on concealed leaks [in the Byron Shire], in contrast to every other shire that I looked at in the surrounding area,’ Mr Birch told last week’s Byron Council meeting.
‘The practice of this Council seems to be to blame the residents for those leaks, even though the residents are entirely without fault and without negligence in that matter.’
And it seems Mr Birch is not alone. Doing some basic extrapolation, Mr Birch calculated that Byron Shire was wasting more than ten million litres of water each year at a cost of tens of thousands of dollars for ratepayers.
‘In my opinion it is irresponsible to waste tens of millions of litres of water each year, and unreasonable to expect locals to pay for leaks where they have no negligence or fault,’ he said.
Dey moved that Council waive 50 per cent
At last Thursday’s Council meeting, Greens councillor Duncan Dey moved that Council waive 50 per cent of Mr Birch’s May water bill and revise the process by which it issues a notice of higher than usual water usage so that residents are notified sooner.
‘We are the standout council in this area and quite different from Queensland in that we just don’t have a policy on undetected leaks,’ Cr Dey said.
‘I believe we should have.
‘Every council and water authority is doing its darndest to conserve water, and one of the ways of doing that is to detect leaks.
‘So what I’m asking for, in addition to waiving part of Mr Birch’s bill, is for Council to revise down the trigger for issuing a notice of higher than usual water usage, and adopt an approach similar to that used by electricity providers, including on bills a graph of the previous rolling five quarters of consumption.
‘I gather from the staff report that we don’t currently have a way of doing that. Well maybe it’s about time that we did. It’s 2024. We have computers that can do that kind of thing. I don’t think it’s a big ask.’
But Council staff, and a majority of councillors disagreed.
Creating a precedent
In written notes responding to Cr Dey’s motion, Council’s manager of finance, corporate and community services, James Brickley, said that if Council waived the bill it would create a precedent for future leaks that Council would have to pay for or subsidise.
‘As the bulk water supplier to Council, Rous County Council charges a fixed amount for water purchases annually and provides Council no credit for any water that may be lost through leakage,’ he said.
Labor councillor Asren Pugh echoed these comments, arguing that waiving bills in such instances would act as a disincentive to conserve water.
‘This is letting people off who aren’t watching what’s happening with their water,’ Cr Pugh said.
‘Anyone can go and look at their water meter at any time. You can go and grab an old bill and walk out the front of your property and look at the meter and compare it.
Home owners need to be responsible
‘Home owners need to be responsible for what’s happening on their property.
‘Council has absolutely no visibility about what’s happening past the meter.
‘All of the information is there. They get bills every three months, the meter is right there. Just a blanket policy that says 50 per cent of your bill isn’t your problem I don’t support.’
In the end a majority of councillors agreed on a compromise position.
Mr Birch will receive $500 off the bill as a one-off concession.
They also decided that, when new software allows, Council will revise the trigger for issuing a notice of higher than usual water usage downwards and adopt an approach similar to that used by electricity providers of including a graph on bills of the previous rolling five quarters of consumption.
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