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High water bills prompt response from Ahwatukee residents demanding answers

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Dozens of Ahwatukee residents gathered for a town hall meeting Thursday night addressing their unexplainable high water bills.

"Unfortunately, this is the first time we've had to be heard after absolutely months of trying to bring attention to a problem that's been building up and building up," resident Karin Gray said. 

Many residents extremely angry and frustrated with the lack of explanation from the city. 

Over the last several months, dozens of families received water bills that were double, triple, quadruple what is typical.

Some bills topped out at over $1,000.

"It’s not logical, there’s no way a leak can cause a 100,000 gallons to go somewhere in a month," Gray said. 

Councilman Sal DiCicco and representatives from the Water Department listened to complaints and said they will be looked into. The city plans to send workers out to check affected meters, free of charge.

In the meantime, families are cutting back to keep their water on.

"There is obviously a lot of people who are paying these water bills and can't afford now to feed their families," Denise Schaumloffel said. "We cut back watering our grass, we clocked the kids' showers and we shortened the kids' shower time."

In a formal statement to ABC15, the city said:

"The City of Phoenix Water Services Department takes customer concerns very seriously. We appreciate the Ahwatukee residents who attended tonight's meeting voicing their questions and concerns. We will be reviewing all accounts and performing additional meter inspections for those customers who provided their information tonight. We encourage any Phoenix resident with questions on their city services bill to contact us at cityservicesbill@phoenix.gov."