美国国家公共电台 NPR--Alabama couple receives an extraordinarily high water bill

Alabama couple receives an extraordinarily¹ high water bill

Transcript²

Many communities still operate antiquated³ water meters that can leave residents with huge bills if a pipe breaks. One Alabama resident had to contend with a nearly $20,000 bill.

ASMA KHALID, HOST:

Water leaks at home waste nearly a trillion gallons of water each year in the U.S. They can also run up huge water bills. Stephan Bisaha of the Gulf⁴ States Newsroom reports on one such bill and why the tech to prevent it is not commonplace.

STEPHAN BISAHA, BYLINE⁵: Sometimes a leak is pretty obvious, like the dripping shower in the townhouse Meghan Taylor rented near Birmingham. She hired a plumber⁶ to fix it last year. Other times it's more ominous⁷, like when the same plumber noticed the home's water meter spinning like a pinwheel.

MEGHAN TAYLOR: He just saw the water meter, like, circling itself like the - you could actually see the needle on it going round and round and round.

BISAHA: Turns out Meghan Taylor and her husband, Will, had another way worse leak on their hands. They lost enough water to more than fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool. They suspect it went into a storm drain, so they never noticed it. They called their water provider, Birmingham Water Works, and were told nothing could be done until after the bill arrived.

M TAYLOR: So we got this bill.

BISAHA: This bill right in front of you.

M TAYLOR: This...

BISAHA: It's a bad day...

M TAYLOR: I'm reading the bill.

BISAHA: ...A very bad day.

M TAYLOR: It says total account balance, $19,526.57.

BISAHA: Twenty-thousand dollars - a huge setback⁸ for their dreams of owning their own home. After weeks of phone calls and emails, Birmingham Water Works agreed to cut the bill down to about $4,000.

Which is still a lot of money.

WILL TAYLOR: It's a lot of money.

M TAYLOR: It's still a lot of money.

W TAYLOR: It is still a lot of money.

BISAHA: Now, Will does think this was fair. After all, the leak was on their side of the property line. But he says utilities should have had some way to detect the leak way before it got to this point.

W TAYLOR: If there was some sort of smart reader in place that could tell you, hey, Will, you're using 10 times more water this month than you were last month. Is everything OK? Something like that could have prevented this way before 800,000 gallons of water had gone down the drain.

BISAHA: And that thing already exists - smart water meters. These meters automatically track and transmit how much water a home uses, and water experts say that could have helped here. Tech like that is common for power companies to track electricity. But for water, the norm is still to have a worker physically⁹ go to each house once a month and read the water meter box.

ALLEN BERTHOLD: Water is, I don't know, let's just say 10 years behind electricity. And so...

BISAHA: Allen Berthold is with the Texas Water Resources Institute. He says unlike an electric meter, water meters are more complicated to keep running properly.

BERTHOLD: When you have a water meter, it's underground. It's battery powered, and you have to have a strong enough battery to be able to get the signal out.

BISAHA: Really, this doesn't make smart meters impossible. They just come with a steep upfront cost. Lots of big utilities like New York City made the shift years ago, while others like New Orleans are doing it right now. But the country's many smaller water providers have been slow to switch over. Birmingham Water Works is still in the early planning phases, discussing a move to smart meters. As for Meghan and Will Taylor, despite the nearly $4,000 water bill setback, they were recently able to buy a beautiful new home surrounded by big trees.

M TAYLOR: And it has a septic tank, which we're so thrilled.

BISAHA: Septic tank over sewage fees. While they still get their water from Birmingham Water Works, they'd rather give the utility as little money as possible.

For NPR News, I'm Stephan Bisaha in Birmingham.

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1 extraordinarily   

adv.格外地；极端地

参考例句：

• She is an extraordinarily beautiful girl.她是个美丽非凡的姑娘。
• The sea was extraordinarily calm that morning.那天清晨，大海出奇地宁静。

2 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

3 antiquated   

adj.陈旧的，过时的

参考例句：

• Many factories are so antiquated they are not worth saving.很多工厂过于陈旧落后，已不值得挽救。
• A train of antiquated coaches was waiting for us at the siding.一列陈旧的火车在侧线上等着我们。

4 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 plumber   

n.(装修水管的)管子工

参考例句：

• Have you asked the plumber to come and look at the leaking pipe?你叫管道工来检查漏水的管子了吗？
• The plumber screwed up the tap by means of a spanner.管子工用板手把龙头旋紧。

7 ominous   

adj.不祥的，不吉的，预兆的，预示的

参考例句：

• Those black clouds look ominous for our picnic.那些乌云对我们的野餐来说是个不祥之兆。
• There was an ominous silence at the other end of the phone.电话那头出现了不祥的沉默。

8 setback   

n.退步，挫折，挫败

参考例句：

• Since that time there has never been any setback in his career.从那时起他在事业上一直没有遇到周折。
• She views every minor setback as a disaster.她把每个较小的挫折都看成重大灾难。

9 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。