The mystery of the missing water hasn’t been solved, but Parksville council unanimously decided not to charge a resident for over half a million litres.
John Whitehouse told council the story of his 77-year-old mother’s extraordinary water bill at the Sept. 27 meeting.
Staff confirmed the details of the $1,900 invoice for 541 cubic metres (541,000 litres) of water — almost 20 times average usage — for a billing period that his mother mostly spent in the hospital and a retirement facility.
Whitehouse and staff checked for leaks and re-checked the meter and all the numbers, but no answers were ever discovered.
With proper documentation of his mother’s absence provided, council decided to treat the anomaly like a leak — only charging the resident the average from the previous three year’s usage.