Woman gets $74,000 water bill
Thursday, July 14, 2005; Posted: 12:50 p.m. EDT (16:50 GMT)

MASCOUTAH, Illinois (AP) -- It has been a hot, dry summer in this St. Louis suburb, but Rose Mary Cook knew there was no way she could have used $74,000 worth of water.

The city's utility department claimed Cook used 10 million gallons of water last month, charging her $29,787 for water, $43,581 for sewer, plus $893 for municipal tax.

"Luckily, when I opened the bill, I was sitting down," Cook said.

"I could have filled every pool in southern Illinois and still not used that much water."

Cook presented the bill to a public works employee at City Hall.

Officials quickly determined the whopping fee was the result of a broken meter and issued a corrected bill for $32.66 -- waiving Cook's monthly water and sewer charges for her troubles.

"My daughter asked me if I was hoarding water during the drought," Cook said.

"I told her I would, but I don't know where I would find 10 million gallon jugs."

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.

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I read this earlier today. What a stupid fucking article. Ooh, there was a defective meter and it spit out this crazy ass number! Big deal. I was mad at CNN for wasting my time with this "story".

This story would have been interesting if the water main had burst under her property and flooded her entire house and then she got a $74,000 bill. That would have been funny.

Those spoiled brats up in Illionois don't know what a drought is.

I think this article would have been worth reading if she accidently left the hose running while on vacation for a month, or if a neighbor was stealing water from her. That is interesting, defective meter...not so much.