A Portsmouth family is staring down a water bill of $2,909.49 that they say the city promised to fix months ago — and the payment is due in less than two weeks. Joseph Lee and his family first noticed the bill spiking into the thousands back in March, traced it to a leaking upstairs toilet, repaired the fixture, and even removed the toilet entirely, only to find the balance still sitting on their account.
Lee told investigators the family simply cannot afford the bill as it stands, according to WAVY. After fixing the leak, the family contacted the city to request a lower bill and says they were told the adjustment would be processed within 24 to 48 hours. Months later, that adjustment still has not come through, and Lee described an ongoing back-and-forth with city staff over the unresolved balance.
City spokesperson JD Sumner said in a statement to 10 On Your Side that the city is aware of the customer's situation and is working to address the family's concerns. That acknowledgment, however, hasn't translated into a reduced bill so far, and the family is now watching a payment deadline close in within roughly two weeks.
Why the Adjustment Takes So Long
Portsmouth's official policy on leak adjustments lays out a multi-step process that may explain some of the delay, even if it doesn't match the 24-to-48-hour timeline the family says they were given. According to the City of Portsmouth's published guidance, customers must first repair the leak, submit documentation of the repair, and then wait for an entire subsequent billing cycle to show reduced usage before any adjustment can be confirmed. In the meantime, the city instructs residents to keep paying their typical average bill rather than withholding payment while the review plays out.
That waiting period collides directly with Portsmouth's delinquency rules, which were updated on July 1. Under the revised policy, unpaid balances face a 1.5% penalty after 14 days of non-payment, and accounts become eligible for service disconnection after 60 days, with a physical door tag notice issued before any shutoff occurs. For a family already stretched by a near-$3,000 bill, that timeline leaves little room for a slow-moving review process to catch up.
How a Single Leak Snowballs Into Thousands
The scale of the Lee family's bill lines up with what plumbing failures of this kind are capable of generating. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has found that a single running toilet can waste anywhere from 200 to as much as 4,000 gallons of water per day, depending on which mechanism — a worn flapper or a faulty fill valve — has failed. Left unnoticed for weeks, that kind of continuous loss adds up fast under Portsmouth's metering system, which measures usage in Centum Cubic Feet, or CCF, with each CCF equal to roughly 748 gallons.
The math is also working against residents on the rate side. Portsmouth City Council's Ordinance No. 2026-38, adopted in May and effective July 1, raised residential water rates from $5.71 to $6.00 per CCF and sewage maintenance rates from $4.49 to $4.71 per CCF. Because Portsmouth bills are consolidated under the Hampton Roads Utility Billing System, which layers in a $29.16 monthly refuse fee, a $10 monthly meter fee, and a 20% utility tax on meter and water charges, a usage spike compounds quickly across multiple line items on a single statement.
Wastewater adds another layer of cost entirely. Treatment for Portsmouth's wastewater is handled separately by the Hampton Roads Sanitation District, a regional authority whose fees are tied directly to metered water usage, meaning a spike in consumption effectively triggers charges on two fronts — the city's sewage collection rate and HRSD's separate treatment fee.
A Familiar Pattern in Portsmouth
The Lee family's situation isn't the city's first high-profile billing dispute this year. In February, WAVY reported on another Portsmouth homeowner locked in a battle over a massive water bill, after the city reduced an initial $23,000 balance down to $18,000 — relief the homeowner still found insufficient, prompting them to go to news investigators for help.
Portsmouth does offer residents tools meant to catch leaks before they balloon into bills like these. The city's online Smart Meter Portal, updated four times daily, lets customers log into their Utilities Access account to review hourly usage and set up automated alerts for unusual consumption. For families already facing disconnection risk over an unaffordable balance, the H2O, or Help to Others, Program — coordinated through the Hampton Roads Planning District Commission — offers one-time financial aid, with grants applying to both local public utility balances and regional HRSD charges, according to the City of Norfolk.
For now, the Lee family is left waiting to see whether the city's review catches up with their deadline. The payment on their $2,909.49 balance is due in less than two weeks, and as of the latest reporting, the promised adjustment still hadn't materialized.
