Investigates

Mayor says changes coming for PWSA customers following high water bills

Channel 11’s Rick Earle (right) speaks with PSWA customer Angela Hadbavny (left) about her most recent bill.

PITTSBURGH — After reporting last week about high water bills Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority customers received, Target 11’s Rick Earle received calls and emails from people with similar stories.

Angela Hadbavny of Mount Washington was one such person.

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Though legally blind, Hadbavny said that with the help of her magnify glass, she was clearly able to see that her most recent water bill was $110, nearly four times what it normally is.

“I'm on disability. I can't handle that,” Hadbavny said.

She called PWSA customer service representatives, who told her she likely had a leak and should hire a plumber. Hadbavny asked PWSA to come out to check her meter but was told that would be an additional $69 charge.

“Well that's not true, and if somebody told her that, we need to know who that is and take the right steps,” PWSA Executive Director Jim Good said.

Good acknowledged Wednesday that there have been issues with equipment, billing and customer service. He said the authority is working to make improvements.

“We've gone through the process. We've identified a few systemic issues that we are hard at work addressing,” Good said.

He said they’ve made changes to hiring new customer service representatives, finance directors and a new IT program coordinator.

However, Pittsburgh Mayor Bill Peduto said he’s more frustrated now about the ongoing complains and he’s promising changes.

“It's a failure on three different levels. The level of not being able to realize there's a systematic problem, the inability to communicate that problem, so people don't get upset, and a failure to be able to deal with people with respect. So there are big changes coming,” Peduto said.

He would not elaborate on the changes, and Good refused to comment on anything Peduto said.

Cox Media Group

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