New Water Meter Reading System Results In Complaints From Area Residents

First it was the EZ-Pass, then the local gas pump. Now radio frequency identification technology is being used by water meter readers throughout northeastern Queens, eliminating the need for home visits by city employees.

But many area residents like Eliott Socci of Douglaston are reporting higher water bills — in some cases, triple that of previous pay periods  —  which they believe is the result of a recent switchover from traditional to electronic water usage meters.

"I’m telling people to save their bills. Unless this is their way of paying for meters they just put in, it’s not logical," Socci said, who said he first took notice of a spike in his residence's water usage in early October.

Socci claimed that he was billed twice during the period spanning October into November, speculating that The Water Board failed to "close off" his old meter while simultaneously charging him based on usage from its electronic equivalent.

"Newly installed wireless water meter readers do not cause duplicate reads, they simply transmit accurate data ... so that it can be viewed online instead of having to send workers to visually obtain a meter read in person," said a spokesman for the city Department of Environment Protection in response to Socci's allegation of over-billing.

However, Assemblyman David Weprin (D-Little Neck), slammed the DEP's practice of considering complaints on a case-by-case basis, instead calling for public hearings on reports of ballooning water bills throughout the city.

Little Neck Pines Civic Association president Bob Nobile echoed Weprin's call for a public hearing on the subject.

"I did get a new water meter installed and yes my bill have gone up," Nobile said, inviting Little Neck residents to email LNPCA with supply info on their water bills so the group could better study the issue.

In addition to complaints received by Weprin's Little Neck district office, Community Board 11 district manager Susan Seinfeld reported four complaints regarding higher water bills since the switchover to the wireless technology.

Contractors working for the city completed installation of new electronic 4-inch by 3-inch boxes across CB11 last fall, Seinfeld said.

The boxes, which provide almost up-to-the-minute info on water usage via radio transmissions to a city control tower, replaced older technology by which meter readers had to plug equipment into an outlet outside residences to read meters.

The reported problems with the new wireless water meters is the latest complaint lobbied against an increasingly embattled city Water Board.

Along with Cities Committee chairman Jim Brennan (D-Brooklyn), Weprin helped push legislation through the Assembly which would cap water rate increases and end the mayor's lock on appointments to the Water Board.

That legislation died in the Senate. Weprin said he and a bipartisan group of Assembly colleagues planned to reintroduce the bill in the current session underway in Albany.

Nathan Duke contributed reporting to this story.