I-Team: Empty Atlanta lot with no water line gets nearly $30K bill, owner appeals and loses

Citizens of Atlanta should demand the leadership of the water board be all fired. They’re a public utility. This is ridiculous.

It would take nearly 19 hours and multiple water trucks to collect 10,000 gallons of water. It is ridiculous to think it was stolen. Everyone on the board should be fired.

The board is right, this is theft. They stole 30k from that guy.

They're accusing him of theft. Presumably he could sue them for slander/libel, damage to reputation, consequent damages (credit rating, unable to get loans, etc.).

How corrupt is the Watershed Board? These folks deserve prison time!

Department investigates itself and finds no wrong doings. Shocker.

UPDATE: Still no progress from the City of Atlanta Watershed Dept. They want us to sue them to resolve the issue...

That board member that brought up "theft" needs to be fired and charged with fraud.

When you see the guy at 3:20 explaining how 1,000,000 gallons of water got stolen you understand everything you need to know about this organization.

How can bill someone that has no water lines. How ridiculous.

In 2015 we went out of state for 3 months for this program. Turned off water main and made sure there wasn’t anything leaking. Our bill for each of those months was around the same as the other months when we took showers everyday and washed dishes and did laundry. Their response. “We assumed there was an error so estimated the water usage” yeah nah if you THINK there is an issue you don’t charge nothing till you go there and check the meter and see if it’s working. The meter is outside.

The inspector said there was no hook up or leaks...the water dept has absolutely no standing for their claim.

As a trucking company owner, I can tell you, that an 80k lb. tank truck can haul about 6300 gallons of water that is distributed to bottled water facilities. 305k gallons of water would take approximately 48 tanker loads. Over 5 months, that would be nearly 2.5 tanks full every weekend, and with a garden hose, would take about 53 hours to fill that tank at 2 gallons per minute, or about 132 hours for 2.5 tankers every weekend. Absolutely not possible !!!!! There's a huge theft tanking place here, and its not the builder.

30K of attempted fraud is a felony. The waterboard should be arrested and put in jail.

Stop appealing and sue them in Federal court for unjust charges.

Why is anyone surprised, it’s Atlanta. The level of corruption continues still, makes you think twice about moving there.

He needs to sue. There's no way he can lose this. It is absolutely ridiculous.

He needs to take it to an ACTUAL court. The WaterShed Board is a joke. "We suspect theft, so it must be you!" Thats not how the law works

That man is getting robbed of $30,000 by unelected bureaucrats. This is one of the reasons that I don't want to live in a big city.

As a retired Utilities Director, this is lunacy.