ST PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — St. Petersburg residents have reported water bills in the thousands, including one account charged more than $300,000 in a single month.
City records also showed billing errors were flagged internally months before hurricanes Helene and Milton, even as leaders continued to cite the storms as the cause of abnormal charges.
On Coffee Pot Boulevard, one homeowner said his bills were normally between $200 and $300. That changed in May 2024, when his statement jumped to more than $4,100. Days later, city records show nearly $29,000 in adjustments were made to his account.
A work order initially listed the problem as a private leak, but was later updated by a city employee as a house-side leak.
Another resident on 13th Street South was billed more than $304,000 in December 2022 before the charge was reversed.
In May 2024, a utility department employee sent an email to human resources documenting billing errors, including the $304,000 charge, a $2,000 garbage bill and a $12,000 leak-related bill. The warning came months before Hurricanes Helene and Milton, contradicting city leaders who have repeatedly linked high bills to storm impacts.
Mayor Ken Welch defended the city’s response.
“We’ve got a handle on that,” Welch said. “It was a combination of the metering and the impact, where some of the houses were unreadable, and old technology that was used for estimating. So that combination really caused that spike. With 95,000 accounts, you’re always going to have some high water bills.”
Water Resources Director Tom Greene added that overall usage numbers have “normalized to pre-storm readings,” though acknowledged some individual cases remain under review.
Residents in St. Pete said they are still searching for answers about why their bills climbed so high and why the city’s own records don’t match official explanations.
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