By Vernon Robison
Moapa Valley Progress
The Moapa Valley Water District Board of Directors instructed staff to cease the practice of removing meters and infrastructure from abandoned and/or delinquent properties at least until clearer policies on the matter could be adopted.
“We have had this practice for some time now with unpaid delinquent accounts of going in and pulling out the meter and even ripping out the piping to the property,” said board member Randy Tobler. “I don’t think that it is fair. It puts a burden on the district in time, money and materials and I just don’t like the policy.”
MVWD Distribution Manager Joe Davis explained that the practice began with certain abandoned mining claims in the area. Owners of the claims had stopped paying the bills for water service on their industrial meters. The service charges and late fees had continued to accumulate until the outstanding balance began to exceed the cost of the meter, Davis said.
Davis explained that the district began to pull the delinquent meters after 24 months to avoid such a situation.
As the foreclosure crisis in the region began taking its toll on the Moapa Valley area, though, similar circumstances began to arise in residential properties, Davis said. To maintain equity in the policies, the practice had to extend to these situations as well, he said.
Tobler suggested that, rather than pulling out the meter, the district put a lock on it so that it couldn’t be used again before the outstanding balance was paid.
Davis explained that this was possible. But it didn’t solve the problem of the continually accruing charges for an inactive meter.
“The problem is, when we install a meter we have to guarantee the resources and the infrastructure to serve that meter,” Davis said. “We have to do that whether water is running through the meter or not. That is why we have an inactive meter charge.”
Davis used the example of the Valley Heights subdivision north of Whipple Avenue in Logandale. At that location there are about 90 meters currently with no service, Davis explained.
“But we still have a requirement to maintain service,” Davis said. “Right now, because of some problems with construction, we are having to replace the lines to those lots. That is about $900 per meter times about 90 meters. It adds up to some money. And we would never recoup those funds unless we charge the inactive meter charge.”
The MVWD doesn’t have the legal ability to place a lien on property. All the district can do is continue billing the owner of the delinquent property for the service. Before the balance is allowed to reach a point that it would exceed the cost of installing a new meter, the district has been removing the meter altogether. Unfortunately, this brings an unpleasant surprise to the next owner who purchases the home, perhaps at auction, and then realizes that it has no water service.
“Whether we pull the meter or not, we have a billing problem either way,” said Tobler. “And either way we will have a surprised customer with a big bill he didn’t foresee. But removing the infrastructure also causes an accounting problem with amortization of the system. And I think that it is just the wrong thing to do. I don’t want to have meters pulled out anymore.”
MVWD attorney Byron Mills advised the board that the wording in current MVWD policy does not require the action of removing meters. “The policy does say that the meters MAY be pulled,” Mills said, “not that they must be.”
Board members agreed to instruct the staff not to remove infrastructure on delinquent accounts. They also asked that the staff work to find potential solutions to the delinquent account policy to be brought up for consideration at a later meeting.
