WATERLOO — For the past 25 years, Marylou Milo has headed south for the winter, and every time she leaves she makes sure to shut off the water to the house to avoid any nasty surprises like a broken water pipe and a flooded basement.

So imagine her shock when she returned home from Arizona in March and started going through her past water bills only to find two totalling $3,800.

"I don't know what's happened," said the 84-year-old, who lives in the Beechwood neighbourhood. She lives on a fixed income, so the thousands of dollars in unexpected costs — about 50 times more than her typical bimonthly water bill of $74 — is difficult to manage.

"I even turned off the water to the toilets," she said. "I'm obsessive about this."

The bills are automatically paid by the bank so she wasn't aware of the charges until she returned home. The largest, issued Feb. 6, was for $3,424.32 and indicated that 845 cubic metres of water passed through the water meter over 64 days. Two months later her bill was $385.

There are 1,000 litres in every cubic metre of water, and the usage amounts to about 10 litres per minute said Todd Chapman, manager of water services at the City of Waterloo.

"It's a difficult situation for the customer, however the city needs to respect and adhere to the supply of water bylaw, and consider the impact of such cases on all customers," said Chapman.

Milo said if those numbers are true, "that volume of water, if outside, would be running down the street. If inside my home, I would be flooded and my home ruined."

Milo said her bill returned to its typical $74 for several months this summer, but it spiked once again to $107 on a recent bill. She says a leak in the system or a running toilet wouldn't produce these types of irregular bills.

She contacted the city and an inspector was sent to her home Tuesday afternoon to inspect her water meter, but it "did not find anything abnormal with the meter or going on in the house," said Chapman.

Chapman noted there was a small leak in the main shut-off valve, and it's common for valves to seize or leak as they age, meaning the valve may not have been completely closed when Milo left. A good way to test if the water is off is to try the taps in the home, he said.

Water meters hardly ever make incorrect readings since water must pass through the meter itself to register a reading, the city says.

"We recommend homeowners with specialized irrigation systems or appliances have a plumber inspect the property and building to ensure all valves and pipes are in good working order," said Chapman. He said the city is working with Milo to resolve the large bills.

The city attempted to call Milo soon after the large bill was first delivered, but the phone just rang without the option of leaving a voice-mail message, Chapman said. He also recommends homeowners update their contact information with the city, especially if they're planning to be away from home for an extended period of time.

The home does have an outdoor sprinkler system, but Milo said it has not been used for more than five years and the inspector confirmed it was properly turned off.

To help address the issue of leaky pipes or appliance malfunctions causing enormous water bills for customers, Chapman said the city wants to expand a real-time water meter reading project first rolled out in 2015.

Known as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), the system allows for water meter readings to be transmitted to the city by radio receivers installed on the meter. Currently, the city hires a private company to read the meters manually on a bimonthly basis, meaning it could be weeks before leaks or other problems are discovered.

The city installed the AMI system at about 100 residential properties in 2015 as a pilot project, then expanded it in 2017 to about 200 non-residential properties.

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"It's working fantastically," he said.

The city is considering a four-year phase-in of the AMI system for every property in the city at a total cost of about $5.5 million. Chapman plans to take the proposal to council for approval in early 2019.