An 86-year-old woman from Queens is at risk of losing her home after the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) hit her with a staggering $22,828.71 water bill, an amount she insisted is completely inaccurate.
Margaret McGowan, who has lived in her modest Tudor-style house in Flushing for 50 years, says she had never paid more than $85 a month for water. But after the DEP shut off her water meter for repairs and left it off for two years, they back-charged her an eye-watering $850 (£670) per month for that period. If accurate, the bill would mean McGowan had somehow used the equivalent of 10 swimming pools of water per month—a claim her supporters say is absurd.
“It was a shock to me to get the bill that high . . . plus interest has accrued,” said McGowan, who was joined by her two daughters, New York Post reported.
McGowan, a widow who raised her children as a single mother, has already had two appeals rejected by the DEP and is now facing a final appeal with the Water Board. If she fails, she risks having a lien placed on her home.
State senator John Liu and assembly member Ed Braunstein stood alongside McGowan, demanding that the DEP acknowledge its mistake and cancel the debt.
“DEP not only needs to cancel this ridiculous $22,000 bill. They need to issue an apology to Mrs McGowan,” said senator Liu, who fears other residents could be facing similar injustices.
The trouble began in January 2022 when the DEP discovered an issue with McGowan’s water meter. Instead of billing her, the agency froze her account while fixing the problem. But in January 2024, when they finally restored her service, they sent a backdated bill that left McGowan stunned.
Despite multiple appeals, the DEP has refused to budge, arguing that the enormous bill could be due to an unknown leak at McGowan’s property. But lawmakers dismissed the idea as laughable.
“That would be ten swimming pools, and their suggestion that there was some kind of leak – Could you measure if there were 10 swimming pools of water a month of leaks?” said assembly Member Braunstein.
“The whole neighborhood would know. That clearly didn’t happen.”
To make matters worse, McGowan’s bank has advised her to pay the bill to avoid action against her home, something Senator Liu called “outrageous.”
“This is a serious threat to Mrs. McGowan’s ownership of her own home, a long-time ownership. So not only is DEP digging its heels in on an indefensible position – they are now threatening Mrs. McGowan with the loss of her long-time home, totally outrageous and unacceptable,” Liu said.
“I just don’t understand what’s going on. I really need help,” she said.
In response, a spokesperson for the DEP told The Post:
“There are no issues with the meter itself and the high bill in question is based on elevated consumption at the property. However, this matter has been appealed to the NYC Water Board and we are reviewing what can be done to assist this customer.”
McGowan, who does not yet have legal representation, is now working with an auditing agency to fight the bill.