Coconut Grove Woman Rings in New Year with $6,600 Water Bill

MIAMI, Fla. - Linda Smith rang in the new year with a $6,600 water bill.

The 74-year-old North Dade Regional Academy kindergarten and 1st grade schoolteacher has been listening to water run in her bathroom and watching the water meter needle steadily spin with it.

Her most recent quote from a plumber to remedy the situation: $17,000.

The plumbers who have visited the Smith property on Charles Avenue in Coconut Grove have advised Smith that the problem is underneath the foundational slab of the house, she said.

Smith, who was born at the property, said that some of the galvanized piping there has not been replaced with copper.

"I'm waiting for another quote," she said.

Smith's water bills have reflected the leak for one-half of 2024.

The most recent quarterly bill in daughter Veronica Bowles's name shows that, during the 97 days spanning Aug. 30 to Dec. 5, some 297,000 gallons of water flowed at the Smith residence for $3,100 of the $6,600 due.

A Miami Dade Water and Sewer Department customer service representative said that she has seen bills top that.

It's not. . . "unusual at all," Roslyn, the customer service representative, said.

Water can so fill Miami's sea level earth during heavy rains and tides swelled by hurricanes that it begins rushing out of manholes, helping to transform roads into waterways.

Underneath the land, the water can damage infrastructure such as pipes, Roslyn noted.

Miami Dade Water and Sewer has itself been upgrading its pipes, those that span publicly owned lands within its 600,000-customer service region.

On Dec. 17, Water and Sewer announced that it has during the past three years invested $1.77 billion to deliver safe and reliable water to customers.

During 2024, the news release contends, Water and Sewer spent $622 million in infrastructure upgrades needed because of issues such as aging pipes.

Little Bahamas is set away from Biscayne Bay and on loftier land than that which sits waterfront, but its residences like those elsewhere in the Grove date to the 1800s.

Water and Sewer reinvested customer fees and borrowed money to pay for its own pipe replacement effort, Department Spokesperson Jennifer L. Messemer-Skold said.

Water and Sewer cannot help Smith with the plumbing costs for her privately owned property, Messemer-Skold said. But the department can adjust the cost of her $6,600 water bill.

Smith can complete an underground/concealed leak form found on the department's website in order to request an adjustment on the bill, she said.

Smith must as part of the request provide before- and after-repair images of the plumbing problem.

A water and sewer department representative can then check the water meter to verify the consumption and adjust her bill, customer service representatives said.

The amount of water for which Smith can expect to be reimbursed depends at least in part upon the amount of water that the bills typically reflect that Smith utilizes, Messemer-Skold said.

Messemer-Skold could not at press time advise how much of Miami Dade Water and Sewer's treated water because of leaks ends up back in the aquifer from which it was derived.

To help slow Smith's existing leak, at least, someone has installed a lever in the ground that allows her to shut the water off between uses.

The water that Water and Sewer treats and sends to the leaky pipe can otherwise build up in the ground as pre-floodwaters do.

In addition to pipe damage, that water can cause septic tanks in areas void of wastewater treatment systems to overflow and blend with it.

Smith said that she hasn't yet detected any mold.

"I have to pay for my car, my car insurance, my mortgage," she said.

"I'm too old for this."