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Class Action Lawsuit Seeks Damages & Action On Incorrect Water Bills

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Pittsburgh Water & Sewer Authority can't get their bills right, says attorney John Corcoran who filed a 34-page class action lawsuit on behalf of local ratepayers.

"People are receiving bills -- and we received complaints from various customers that are just extremely high -- they go from $50 one month to the next month they're $400," Corcoran told KDKA money editor Jon Delano on Tuesday.

KDKA-TV first reported this problem three months ago when residents like Vivian Kowalski of Mt. Washington saw their water bill double.

Delano: "What's going on?"

Kowalski: "I don't know."

Delano: "Are you using more water?"

Kowalski: "No. no. And there's not any other people living here neither."

Kowalski said the Water Authority seemed confused.

"They don't know what they're doing, and they can't answer our questions," she added.

Corcoran has lots of incorrect water bills.

This one jumped from $200 to $2,500, and here's an unoccupied property that was charged for 132,000 gallons of water never used.

The lawsuit blames new outside meter readers that are supposed to read meters inside the house and transmit the info via satellite directly to Water Authority computers.

"The MIU units, the interface units, the radio-controlled interfaces, are not operating correctly," said Corcoran.

"We are having some problems," said Melissa Rubin, PWSA spokesperson, last February.

Rubin said then that outside readers cannot always read older inside meters.

But PWSA declined comment on this lawsuit.

If you feel that you've been overbilled by the PWSA, you don't need to contact Corcoran to be part of this lawsuit.

Everybody will be part of the class as long as the judge certifies that this is a class action lawsuit.

And, if you wish, you can share your specific circumstances by going on to a Facebook page of the plaintiffs that linked here.

Corcoran says affected ratepayers should get repaid overcharges and punitive damages and a court order to the PWSA to "fix the problem."

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