Woman gets water bills totaling more than $9,000

MIAMI, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- A Florida woman said she suspects her water meter is to blame for a pair of bills totaling more than $9,000.

Maria Lopez of Miami said her quarterly water bills usually cost about $100 for her average 15,000 gallons of water, but her last two bills have totaled $9,743.68 for nearly 386,000 gallons, WPLG-TV, Miami, reported Tuesday.

"You should have like a 15-story building with a leak to have this much amount of water," she said.

Lopez said she has hired two different plumbers who could not find any leaks.

"I'm going to die. I can't pay this. It's just ridiculous," Lopez said. "The only way to read it is the meter. The problem has to be the meter."

"They [Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department] should have talked to me," she said. "Alert me, work with me, because you don't know what to do."

Jennifer Messemer, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Water & Sewer Department, said officials aren't sure why Lopez's bill was so high.

"Water was used, water went through that meter. What happened to it? We don't know -- we weren't there," she said.

Officials said Lopez can appeal her bills or ask for the meter to be removed and inspected.