CLAY COUNTY, Fla. – A Clay County woman says she is still searching for answers after being charged nearly $900 by the Clay County Utility Authority during a single billing cycle.
Alexis Quiva told News4JAX she was billed for about 95,000 gallons of water, which is enough to fill roughly six average-sized swimming pools.
“I was freaking out. I was not expecting that,” Quiva said.
Quiva said she has dealt with plumbing leaks before, but nothing close to this amount.
“I’ve had a leak here before previously, and it was about $200, but $900, I thought I was filling up someone’s swimming pool,” she said.
According to the utility bill, Quiva’s home used about 95,000 gallons of water. By comparison, the average residential swimming pool holds about 17,000 gallons.
Quiva said she hired multiple plumbers to inspect the property, but neither found a clear explanation for the unusually high usage.
“The first plumber said that he saw no signs of a leak,” Quiva said. “The second plumber, he went ahead and gutted my toilets. He said that the flappers on my toilets looked good. So he said it was very unlikely that that was the cause of it.”
As she disputed the bill with the utility authority, Quiva said her water service was eventually shut off, forcing her to pay the balance to restore service.
“Truthfully, it’s put us behind our bills,” she said.
In a statement to News4JAX, the utility authority said meter data showed “a steady flow of water over several days,” which officials say explains how usage reached nearly 95,000 gallons during a single billing cycle.
The authority said the data reflected continuous water consumption and was not the result of a meter error or incorrect reading.
But plumbing officials who reviewed the case disagreed with the utility’s conclusion.
One plumbing official wrote that “it is unreasonable to hold the customer responsible for this charge without further investigation.”
The plumber who inspected the property stated there were “no visible leaks anywhere on the property” and said that with a water bill that large, “it would have been noticeable through continuous running water, which was not observed.”
Quiva said no one from the utility authority physically inspected her property or meter.
Despite the utility authority’s explanation, Quiva said she still believes the bill was improper. She also has concerns that she did not receive an alert about high usage.
“Still, to this day, I still don’t know what caused it,” she said.
Quiva said she now worries it could happen again.
“The most I can do is just hope that it doesn’t happen again,” she said. “I had to ask one of the representatives what direction would I take if this were to happen again and the most she said that we could do is hope.”
The utility authority said after Quiva submitted documentation showing plumbing repairs had been made, the agency applied a $400 adjustment to the account under its leak adjustment policy.
However, because Quiva’s water service had already been disconnected, she was also charged a $300 reconnection fee. In total, she said she still paid about $800 for her April water bill.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the utility said, “Notifications of unusual water use are available within the customer’s online account and do not require any sign-up. A visible notification banner appears on the account dashboard when customers log in, indicating elevated or continuous water use.
Email or text notifications are optional, as those require customer consent. Customers can sign up for those alerts by logging into their online account portal, navigating to the Smart Meters section, and enabling their preferred alert settings.
We understand that high bills can be concerning, and we encourage customers to contact us as soon as they notice unusual usage so we can assist in reviewing their account and identifying possible causes."