re: 1400 dollar water bill: Anybody ever dealt with JP water department?

I had to fight with BR water company several times when I lived there. I had to fight fire with fire. Luckily I pissed off the guy turning off my meter enough that he did some stupid stuff on camera and then all the other BS went away.

The problem, the house next to me was abandoned after the 2016 floods... the idiot kept shutting off the water and taking the wrong meter. After we get that fixed the idiot puts a different meter and I get charged THOUSANDS of dollars. The water company wanted me to pay to have the meter tested which wasn't cheap and also wasn't the problem!

Since I felt they were turning off the water without just cause I took steps to prevent that from happening... I wouldn't recommend it, but it worked... only because the field guy lost his cool... on camera. The incident brought my case to the right person and everything went away.

Years before I also had a meter that was skipping, that wasn't fun either. Eventually I got them to change the meter and suddenly my usage dropped drastically.

Last year I had a $900 bill. Turns out I had a leak near the house. A rock had rubbed against the copper line and finally wore a pin hole. Called the water compnay, they told me to share the repair bill, which was $455. They credited me $800. I was quite pleased ultimately.

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we used 89K gallons over the span of 2 months.

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Do you have a rice farm? How is that possible? I have heard of something like that when a water line busts under a house and not known to the owner.

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That is about 1 gallon a minute - all day, every day for two months.

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Water bills are generally on a monthly schedule so……

Doing some quick math here…..

Stand by……

Almost there…..

That’s about three and a half gallons a minute - all day, every day for one month.

(I rounded up)

According to chatgtp.....

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If I were in their situation, I'd avoid assuming it's either a leak or a bad meter until there was evidence. Here's the order I'd recommend:

Read the meter yourself.
Compare the meter's current reading to the reading on the bill.
If the numbers don't make sense, take a photo of the meter.
Turn off every water-using fixture and appliance.
Shut off faucets, toilets, ice maker, washing machine, irrigation, etc.
Watch the meter for 5–15 minutes.
If the flow indicator (often a small triangle, star, or digital flow display) is still moving, you almost certainly have water flowing somewhere.
Isolate whether the leak is inside or outside.
Turn off the home's main shutoff valve.
If the meter still shows flow, the leak is likely between the meter and the house (the service line), or there is a meter issue.
If the meter stops, the leak is somewhere inside the house or on irrigation connected after the shutoff.

Request the smart meter's detailed usage data.
One advantage of smart meters is they often record hourly or even more frequent usage.
If the graph shows a steady ~1 GPM 24/7, that's classic leak behavior.
If it shows one or two huge spikes, that points to a different issue.
If the pattern looks impossible, it could indicate a meter or billing problem.
Check the usual culprits.
Running toilets (put a little food coloring in the tank to see if it leaks into the bowl).
Irrigation systems.
Outdoor hose bibs.
Water softener stuck regenerating.
Humidifiers, evaporative coolers, reverse-osmosis systems.
If nothing is obvious, call a plumber.
A leak detection service can often find underground leaks without digging everywhere.
One thing to keep in mind

Since the utility just installed a smart meter, it's also worth asking:

Was the old meter reading estimated or actual?
Was the new meter initialized correctly?
Was the account accidentally billed using the wrong start or end reading?

Utilities occasionally make billing or installation errors, and smart meter data can usually help verify whether the usage was real.

If they tell me what city or water utility they're with, I can also explain what data that particular utility typically provides and how to interpret it.

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The original post said "89K gallons over the span of 2 months"

Jefferson Parish water bills cover two months.

89000 / 61 days = 1459 gallons per day.
1459 / 24 = 60.8 gallons per hour
Close enough to 1 gallon per minute.