All posts by Jennifer Frost

Billing, My Water

Utility Scam Awareness Day

Many electric, water, and natural gas customers throughout the country are being targeted by impostor utility scams each day. Scammers typically use phone, in-person, and online tactics to target customers. One of the most common types of utility scams involves customers receiving unsolicited telephone, electronic, or in-person communications from an individual claiming to be a utility company representative. The scammer warns that the customer’s electric, water, or natural gas service will be disconnected or shut off if the customer fails to make an immediate payment—typically using a reloadable prepaid debit card or other non-traceable form of payment. Scammers often use valid-looking phone numbers, graphics, uniforms, and other forms of fraudulent identification.

Common scam tactics include:
  • Threat to disconnect: Scammers may aggressively tell a customer their utility bill is past due, and service will be disconnected—usually within an hour—if a payment is not made.
  • Request for immediate payment: Scammers might instruct a customer to purchase a prepaid card, cryptocurrency, or to send funds via a mobile app to make a bill payment.
  • Request for prepaid card or payment through certain mobile apps: Customers are instructed to pay with a prepaid debit card. The impostor asks for the prepaid card’s number, which grants instant access to the card’s funds. More recently, customers have also been instructed to send a payment through a mobile app. Charlotte Water currently does not accept payments through the Cash App, Venmo or Zelle apps. However, customers can make payments on Charlotte Water payment portal by visiting charlottewater.org.
  • Personal information: During the COVID-19 crisis, criminals are promising to mail refund checks for over-payments on their accounts if they can confirm their personal data, including birthdays and, in some cases, Social Security numbers.
Tips to Avoid Scams:
  • Protect your personal information: Charlotte Water will have your relevant personal and account information. Never provide or confirm personal information such as Social Security number or bank account information.
  • Take your time: If someone calls or appears saying you have to pay your bill immediately, tell them you would like to verify that they are a legitimate utility company. Call 311 or 704-336-7600 to verify the contact.
  • Always ask questions: Ask the person calling you or visiting you in person to provide you with your account number, your last payment amount, date of payment and his/her employee ID number. If he/she is a legitimate utility representative, this information will be readily accessible.
  • Don’t let them inside: Charlotte Water staff have no reason to enter your home. Meters are located outside.
  • Pay your utility only: Never make a utility bill payment to anyone calling you on the phone, coming to your door, texting you, or emailing you. Always call your utility company at the number provided on your bill. Charlotte Water (at the City of Charlotte) can be contacted by dialing 311 or 704-336-7600.

For more information visit utilitiesunited.org or charlottewater.org.

Billing, My Water

Charlotte Water Announces Customer Care Program in Response to Pandemic

Charlotte Water, along with Charlotte-Mecklenburg Storm Water Services, has created the Customer Care Program. The goal of the program is to work with customers to avoid any situation where a customer is disconnected for non-payment.

As the community’s supplier of water, now more than ever, Charlotte Water’s service to the community is critical to the health and well-being of residents. And, we realized that many customers are facing unexpected, unparalleled financial hardships.

As a first stage, on March 13, 2020, late fees on the water bills were no longer charged and customer shutoffs for non-payment were discontinued. Previously disconnected customers were reconnected immediately. When the Executive Order (EO 124/142) expired on July 29, 2020, Charlotte Water continued the practices started in March.

Charlotte Water is now moving into the next stage of customer assistance as the pandemic continues to impact the community by:

  • Continuing the temporary practice of not disconnecting customers for delinquent account balances and not imposing late charges, and
  • Actively working with customers to address and resolve their past due balances in the coming months through payment arrangements and financial assistance.

Customers with past due balances as of September 30 will automatically be placed on a 12-month, no interest payment arrangement beginning with their October 2020 statement. No action is needed by customers to begin the payment arrangement.

Charlotte Water has also enhanced partnerships with local non-profits such as Crisis Assistance Ministries to provide financial assistance programs.

Through the Customer Care Program, Charlotte Water has also established the Customer Care Team, a group of trained customer service professionals dedicated to work one-on-one with customers, connecting them with community assistance agencies and working with customers to address and resolve past due balances.

Legally, Charlotte Water cannot forgive charges for services received by customers during the pandemic despite the current economic hardships the community faces. The Customer Care Program matches customers struggling to make ends meet with community resources that can help while making sure that no one is without the water people need to stay healthy.

For more information, customers can visit charlottewater.org or contact 311 (704-336-7600).

Updates, What's Going On?

Charlotte Water Response to COVID-19

As the community’s primary provider of drinking water, Charlotte Water realizes the vital service we provide to the community. As such, the utility has taken the following steps in these unprecedented times to further prioritize uninterrupted safe, reliable and clean drinking water service for the health and welfare of our residents.

Discontinue Service Disconnections – On March 12, Charlotte Water discontinued service disconnections due to non-payment. Those customers who were disconnected at the time have since been re-connected. Customers should continue to make payments to avoid higher bills later.

Suspend Collection of Late Fees – On March 23, Charlotte Water suspended assessment of late fees associated with delinquent accounts in order to further reduce any hardship on customers. Customers who need assistance paying their Charlotte Water bill can contact 311 (704-336-7600) to learn about payment arrangement options as well as other community resources available to assist. Customers can also visit charlottewater.org to review available payment methods.

Shift Work Priorities – In a heightened effort to maintain constant water service, Charlotte Water has reassigned crews to focus on work that will cause the fewest interruptions in water service to customers. Steps taken to avoid service outages include:

  • postponing non-critical work,
  • installing temporary water connections where possible,
  • delaying low priority leak repairs, and
  • performing other important work that doesn’t require a water service outage.

Only in the most extreme cases of emergency and public safety is Charlotte Water doing work that would cause a temporary water service outage. In those instances, we are minimizing the outage duration and providing bottled water to the affected customers. Where practical, overnight work is also considered.

The steps taken by Charlotte Water allow the utility to comply with current NC Executive Orders, to keep contractors and employees working on important infrastructure maintenance, and, most importantly, to provide a service so critical to our community right now.

My Water, Water Quality

Five Reasons Why You Should Drink Tap Water

At Charlotte Water, we are not just employees, we are also customers. Here are a few reasons why we drink tap water too.

#1 – Charlotte Water’s reliable drinking water treatment plants and distribution system are award winning.

Charlotte Water is a member of the Partnership for Safe Water and our main plant (Franklin) received the Director’s Award for Water Treatment in 2018. Charlotte Water is also a designated Utility of the Future and in 2018 received special recognition for the utility’s work in environmental innovation. Our engineers and plant operators build redundancy into every system from our pipe systems to our computer systems.

#2 – Testing, testing, monitoring, and more testing

Charlotte Water has had perfect drinking water permit compliance since January 2015. [The January 2015 violation was an administrative citation.] Our lab staff conduct more than 200,000 monitoring tests every year on more than 150 different constituents. “A significant part of our job is keeping up with the latest regulatory requirements,” said lab manager Alan Hilling. “The work we do isn’t like you see on TV. There is much more involved than simply putting a sample into a machine, pressing a button, and getting instant results.” Check out our Consumer Confidence Report and Annual Water Quality Report. This year’s Water Quality Report will arrive in your mailbox June 2020.

#3 – A gallon of water is less than a penny!

Cost per gallon
Gallon of gas$2.34
Gallon of milk$2.89
Gallon of ice cream$3.09
Gallon of detergent$17.99
Gallon of Charlotte Water$.003 (a third of a cent)
Why spend more?

#4 – Water. It does a body good.

Through the I Heart Water partnership between Charlotte Water and Mecklenburg County Health Department, we know that drinking tap water:

  • Fights fatigue
  • Helps decrease stress
  • Prevents tooth decay
  • Fights off dehydration which can lead to poor organ function and illness
  • Helps you stay cool when it’s hot outside

#5 – The best pre-beer in town

One of the main reasons the brewing industry is thriving in Charlotte is because of the water here.

We spoke with Carolina Brew Master’s President Richard lane for his opinion. “Water quality is paramount to brewing, as water is easily 95% of the finished product.  At a base level, if the water is good enough to drink, it’s good enough to brew beer.”

He went on to say, “Over 100 years ago, when these local beers were being created, they could not have been developed in the other city, strictly due to the minerals in the water, and how those minerals impact the brewing process.  This is also one reason why “drink local” is so meaningful to the craft beer movement.  An IPA brewed in Charlotte will be different from the same IPA brewed in Colorado, or even Raleigh, because the water profile is different.”

Charlotte Water has been in operation since 1899. We serve more than 108 million gallons of water every day to the Charlotte community.