ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — A Wedgefield woman is fighting with her water company after receiving a massive bill in the mail—and she says she shouldn’t have to pay.
Annika Martin said she was mostly away from home during June, taking care of her elderly parents, when her water usage suddenly went from averaging zero or ten gallons per hour to 250.
According to her home’s water usage, Martin filled the equivalent of a hot tub every hour for the entire month, or 158,000 gallons, before the meter suddenly stopped spinning so fast in early July.
“I was just like, what is this?” Martin said, recalling opening the bill.
Her water company, Pluris, flagged the high usage and left a note on her door on July 3.
An email provided by Martin showed she reached out to the company around midnight on July 4, saying she checked for leaks and couldn’t find anything. She asked them to take a look on their end.
Seventeen hours later, the usage rates dropped back down to normal.
Both sides are stuck in a game of water bill chicken, with Martin saying her service might be shut off if she doesn’t pay up.
“I believe there’s a computer glitch somewhere, and I should not be responsible for that,” she said.
Bills from two plumbers showed they checked for leaks and found nothing. Martin says she wasn’t home, so much that two of her three toilets are shut off because she doesn’t need them.
Pluris, however, tested her meter twice, once using an independent company. The meter passed inspection.
“It is interesting that the excessive usage stopped the day after the customer was notified,” spokeswoman Beverly Yopp wrote in a lengthy response to Martin’s claims.
Yopp said customers can sign up for real-time tracking of their water usage, which Martin did not do until after the problem came to light.
Pluris dropped Martin’s usage to the lowest cost tier, lowering her payment to $1,800. They offered to put her on a payment plan.
“Pluris is not legally bound to give Ms. Martin an adjustment on the elevated usage charges,” Yopp said. “In an act of good faith, we have offered a tier rate adjustment and payment plan on the remaining balance.”
Martin says she should just pay her normal amount.
“Who’s to say that this isn’t going to happen again, and I’m going to be stuck with another bill like this?” she asked.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.
©2025 Cox Media Group
