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Deltona residents fed up with drastically high water bills

By Samantha Manning
By Samantha Manning
Deltona residents said they are fed up with drastically high water bills.
One homeowner said her bills are sometimes more than $700 a month.
Dana McCool said her problems with the Deltona water department started in 2016.
"Consistently there were five, six, $700 bills for about six months," she said.
That's up from the usual average of between $40 and $50.
9 Investigates: Drastic water rate increase for some in Seminole County
Deltona city officials said there was a leak in McCool's irrigation system and there was an expansion tank on the hot water heater.
The leak was fixed and the tank was removed and McCool's bills went down.
The city gave McCool two credits totaling $990, but McCool is still being charged for a payment plan for back pay from those several months when her bill skyrocketed.
"I think that it's wrong. I live here. I pay taxes,” she said.
Deltona Commissioner Anita Bradford started looking into the issue last year when she got about a dozen complaints.
In May, several homeowners reached out to Channel 9 after their water bills more than doubled. Bradford said leaks are the biggest problem.
"It's that silent bomb that explodes when you get it in a piece of paper and you're not expecting it,” Bradford said. “I sympathize with them. The biggest thing I can recommend for them to do is to immediately jump on the situation."
Bradford said the city can test the meter and do a leak test. 
She said the longer a homeowner waits to figure out why the bill is so high, the more money it will cost.

Cox Media Group

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