Residents Receive $6,500 Bills From Ridgewood Water

One resident received a $6,500 bill from Ridgewood Water. Another received a $7,000 bill.

Residents pleaded with the Village Council Wednesday to do something about the unbelievable high utility bills they have received recently.

One resident who said she received a $6,500 bill said Ridgewood Water told her that she used hundreds of thousands of gallons of water more one quarter than she did the previous quarter. Her previous quarter’s bill was about $150.

“Something is very wrong there,” the woman said. “I don’t know what the answer is.”

The embattled utility company provides water to Ridgewood, Glen Rock, Wyckoff, and Midland Park. It has seen its share of problems this week.

The chlorine level in the water supply ran as high as five parts per million Monday and Tuesday. The state allows a maximum of four parts per million. A pump at the Twinney Treatment Facility failed and pumped too much chlorine into the water supply and the automatic notification and shut down system was not working, the utility said in a notice.

“There is nothing that suggests that there was a hazardous public health issue,” a notice on the village’s website said.

Ridgewood Water flushed the system as a precaution and the treatment facility was operational Wednesday afternoon, the notice said.

The notice said that it is working on better ways of communicating more quickly with the public as a result of what happened.