$126,000 bill dashes cold water on town hall meeting set up to explain new billing system
Jackson’s 65,000 new water meters are nearly all in place, but there won’t be any meter readers going about the neighborhoods to record the amount consumed from month to month. The new meters send that information electronically to JXN Water offices.
During Tuesday’s town hall meeting at Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, Jackson’s interim third party water system manager Ted Henifin reported on a number of changes that have been put in place since he assumed charge of the city’s water and sewage system, beginning in November 2022.
“The reason we don’t come out to read meters is because we don’t have to. It sends a signal to us,” Henifin told the group of 100 concerned citizens at the meeting hosted by Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley. “We can see one-hour water usage increments on your meter every day, all month. And if we get very sophisticated, we can outreach to you and say that we noticed that your water consumption just shot up. You might need to check for a leak.”
MANY PROBLEMS
Despite the many positive adjustments brought about under Henifin’s administration, Ward 5 water customers are still reporting glaring faults in the system. Rev. Keith Ratliff and his wife, minister Jennifer Ratliff, of Calvary Christian Oak Forest Church, for example, complained of a $126,000 water bill they received from the billing center for October.
Since taking over the church in 2020, they’ve been faced with water seeping up through the street and sidewalks adjacent to the church property. Two contractors they consulted said there were no leaks from the church’s water line. But the water bills they received have ranged from $200 up to the October bill that showed the church owing more than $126,000 for water usage. Even after they cut the meter off, the water kept running, the minister said.
“We have done everything the city has asked us to do,” Mrs. Ratliff said. “We just want to know how we can get a final resolution.”
Henifin had no immediate answer for the complaining church couple except to say that the only way the meter readings could be happening is that water would have to flow through it.
Shirley Miller, owner of a rental property in Ward 3, says she has been unable to recover the hook-up deposits she paid to keep the water on between tenants.
“Each time a person moves out of the rental property, I assume the water under my name. Now, I can’t get my $100 deposit back when the new tenant puts it in their name. I’ve written letters, called, and went many times to the office when they were at the MetroCenter,” Miller said.
She said she has written Henifin three times, as well as the mayor and constituent services, about her problem but has not received a response.
“They kept telling me I’d get the refund in six months, but it’s been years, and I still haven’t gotten any of the deposit fees back.”
Henifin said he was being overwhelmed with the individual complaints and suggested they call the JXN Water help line for a response.
At least a half-dozen other complaints ranging from unprofessional staff answering phone calls, generally poor service from JXN Water, and “dark water” settling in bathtubs were directed at the system manager.
OLD BILLS
The outlandish water bills sent out before November 2022, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars, will no longer be a problem for current water consumers, Henifin said.
“We took all of the pre-November 29 money off the bills,” he said. “So, if you had anything prior to Nov. 29, 2022 it’s not showing up on your bill anymore.”
Hartley was concerned about whether the city of Jackson would be responsible for collecting those old bills.
“We’re just not going to worry about that,” Henifin said.
CCF EXPLAINED
Henifin was asked to explain the details of the new billing system, something that he refers to as a “volumetric” system. Information posted on the JXN Water website gives a detailed explanation of the system.
The appearance of the letters “CCF” on the monthly bills stand for “Centum Cubic Feet,” a standard of measure used by the water industry and the EPA that translates to a “hundred cubic feet,” and is equivalent to 748 gallons of water. That is, one CCF=748 gallons. The cost is $6 per CCF. The average family in Jackson uses about 5,000 gallons a month, or 6.7 CCF’s. The 5/8 inch water meter serves the average single family home and has a $40 monthly charge. A larger apartment complex or business might use a 1-inch meter that averages a $60 monthly charge.
Households receiving SNAP funds are to be billed $10 each month.
“The cost of water is not in the water itself,” Henifin said. “The costs lie in the treatment and distribution. Fixed costs remain no matter what amount of water the customers use.”
State law requires water utilities to charge based on consumption plus a fee to recover the costs of debt, operation, and maintenance. “We’re following that law as closely as we can,” said Henifin.
Henifin cautions households to avoid getting behind on payments.
“As we move forward and we start settling into this process,” he said, “We want you to never get more than a month behind. Or we’re going to show up at your door and have you pay your bill or cut your water off, because once you get behind, it’s hard to catch up. And it’s important for us to be fast and get to you and let you know you’re behind. We’ve got a fund out of the Mississippi Community Foundation that offers assistance on a one-time basis.
“We’ve done a great job of getting the system to work as it should,” Henifin said. “In November, we got water into certain sections of South Jackson that hadn’t had water in five years.”
The Fewell plant was shut down for three hours Monday night to do some long overdue maintenance operations and hardly anyone noticed, he said.
“If we had done that two months ago, we would have had the whole city waking up to bad water. The next big hurdle for us is the deep freeze,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of efforts to make sure the plants are winterized as well as they can be. The system operates differently with valves open and water flowing through. We’re confident that if we have some pipe breaks, we can respond quickly.”
The Jackson schools that were without water are all back in the system, he said. “We’ve got the schools open without having to send anyone home for lack of water.”
The current repairs to the Jackson water system are being paid for by the federal government, said Henifin. The sewer repairs are financed through revenue from the billing system.
With 215 sewer repairs called for under the stipulated order, fifty repairs were made by the end of October. But only 19 of those were on the list. There are many other ruptures in the water and sewer systems that were not on the priority list but need immediate repair he said.
“We need to get everyone educated and informed enough to understand why it’s costing what it costs and why we’re building a water system that’s robust and strong,” said Hartley. ”The bottom line is, if we don’t have a good strong system, we don’t have a good, strong Jackson.”
Jackson’s 65,000 new water meters are nearly all in place, but there won’t be any meter readers going about the neighborhoods to record the amount consumed from month to month. The new meters send that information electronically to JXN Water offices.
During Tuesday’s town hall meeting at Mt. Nebo Baptist Church, Jackson’s interim third party water system manager Ted Henifin reported on a number of changes that have been put in place since he assumed charge of the city’s water and sewage system, beginning in November 2022.
“The reason we don’t come out to read meters is because we don’t have to. It sends a signal to us,” Henifin told the group of 100 concerned citizens at the meeting hosted by Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley. “We can see one-hour water usage increments on your meter every day, all month. And if we get very sophisticated, we can outreach to you and say that we noticed that your water consumption just shot up. You might need to check for a leak.”
MANY PROBLEMS
Despite the many positive adjustments brought about under Henifin’s administration, Ward 5 water customers are still reporting glaring faults in the system. Rev. Keith Ratliff and his wife, minister Jennifer Ratliff, of Calvary Christian Oak Forest Church, for example, complained of a $126,000 water bill they received from the billing center for October.
Since taking over the church in 2020, they’ve been faced with water seeping up through the street and sidewalks adjacent to the church property. Two contractors they consulted said there were no leaks from the church’s water line. But the water bills they received have ranged from $200 up to the October bill that showed the church owing more than $126,000 for water usage. Even after they cut the meter off, the water kept running, the minister said.
“We have done everything the city has asked us to do,” Mrs. Ratliff said. “We just want to know how we can get a final resolution.”
Henifin had no immediate answer for the complaining church couple except to say that the only way the meter readings could be happening is that water would have to flow through it.
Shirley Miller, owner of a rental property in Ward 3, says she has been unable to recover the hook-up deposits she paid to keep the water on between tenants.
“Each time a person moves out of the rental property, I assume the water under my name. Now, I can’t get my $100 deposit back when the new tenant puts it in their name. I’ve written letters, called, and went many times to the office when they were at the MetroCenter,” Miller said.
She said she has written Henifin three times, as well as the mayor and constituent services, about her problem but has not received a response.
“They kept telling me I’d get the refund in six months, but it’s been years, and I still haven’t gotten any of the deposit fees back.”
Henifin said he was being overwhelmed with the individual complaints and suggested they call the JXN Water help line for a response.
At least a half-dozen other complaints ranging from unprofessional staff answering phone calls, generally poor service from JXN Water, and “dark water” settling in bathtubs were directed at the system manager.
OLD BILLS
The outlandish water bills sent out before November 2022, sometimes amounting to thousands of dollars, will no longer be a problem for current water consumers, Henifin said.
“We took all of the pre-November 29 money off the bills,” he said. “So, if you had anything prior to Nov. 29, 2022 it’s not showing up on your bill anymore.”
Hartley was concerned about whether the city of Jackson would be responsible for collecting those old bills.
“We’re just not going to worry about that,” Henifin said.
CCF EXPLAINED
Henifin was asked to explain the details of the new billing system, something that he refers to as a “volumetric” system. Information posted on the JXN Water website gives a detailed explanation of the system.
The appearance of the letters “CCF” on the monthly bills stand for “Centum Cubic Feet,” a standard of measure used by the water industry and the EPA that translates to a “hundred cubic feet,” and is equivalent to 748 gallons of water. That is, one CCF=748 gallons. The cost is $6 per CCF. The average family in Jackson uses about 5,000 gallons a month, or 6.7 CCF’s. The 5/8 inch water meter serves the average single family home and has a $40 monthly charge. A larger apartment complex or business might use a 1-inch meter that averages a $60 monthly charge.
Households receiving SNAP funds are to be billed $10 each month.
“The cost of water is not in the water itself,” Henifin said. “The costs lie in the treatment and distribution. Fixed costs remain no matter what amount of water the customers use.”
State law requires water utilities to charge based on consumption plus a fee to recover the costs of debt, operation, and maintenance. “We’re following that law as closely as we can,” said Henifin.
Henifin cautions households to avoid getting behind on payments.
“As we move forward and we start settling into this process,” he said, “We want you to never get more than a month behind. Or we’re going to show up at your door and have you pay your bill or cut your water off, because once you get behind, it’s hard to catch up. And it’s important for us to be fast and get to you and let you know you’re behind. We’ve got a fund out of the Mississippi Community Foundation that offers assistance on a one-time basis.
“We’ve done a great job of getting the system to work as it should,” Henifin said. “In November, we got water into certain sections of South Jackson that hadn’t had water in five years.”
The Fewell plant was shut down for three hours Monday night to do some long overdue maintenance operations and hardly anyone noticed, he said.
“If we had done that two months ago, we would have had the whole city waking up to bad water. The next big hurdle for us is the deep freeze,” he said. “We’ve taken a lot of efforts to make sure the plants are winterized as well as they can be. The system operates differently with valves open and water flowing through. We’re confident that if we have some pipe breaks, we can respond quickly.”
The Jackson schools that were without water are all back in the system, he said. “We’ve got the schools open without having to send anyone home for lack of water.”
The current repairs to the Jackson water system are being paid for by the federal government, said Henifin. The sewer repairs are financed through revenue from the billing system.
With 215 sewer repairs called for under the stipulated order, fifty repairs were made by the end of October. But only 19 of those were on the list. There are many other ruptures in the water and sewer systems that were not on the priority list but need immediate repair he said.
“We need to get everyone educated and informed enough to understand why it’s costing what it costs and why we’re building a water system that’s robust and strong,” said Hartley. ”The bottom line is, if we don’t have a good strong system, we don’t have a good, strong Jackson.”
