Alarm bells went off in Andrew Slavin’s head when he looked at his latest bill from the Oakmont Water Authority.

“There is no way that my wife and I used 40,000 gallons of water like this bill says we did,” Slavin said.

The Penn Hills man said he is being charged almost $1,400 for water usage, water service, sewage usage, sewage service and stormwater service. The majority of the cost is due to sewage disposal charges.

Slavin’s quarterly bill detailed that he, his wife and his in-laws went from using 10,000 gallons of water the previous quarter to 40,000 gallons in the past three months.

While Slavin has never had a bill exceeding $1,000, past bills have reached the $700 and $800 range, he said. He had a plumber come to his home and check for leaks two months ago.

He posted a picture of his bill online, and people throughout Penn Hills began sharing photos of their own quarterly bills. Slavin questioned why nobody from the water authority had notified him of the huge increase in his household’s water usage.

Oakmont Water Authority did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

“I can still afford it, but it’s not about me,” Slavin said. “People are going to have to pick between what bills to pay. Mortgages are less than some of these bills.”

Part of the cause was a 7% increase that the Allegheny County Sanitary Authority, Alcosan, added as part of its five-yearsewage rate structure plan in 2022. Since the increase’s initial implementation, rates have increased by a total of 21%. It’s scheduled to continue through 2026 and will fund infrastructure to reduce untreated runoff.

Dawn Havrilla, customer service supervisor at Alcosan, said the sewage bills posted were valued with the 2024 rate at $11.14 per 1,000 gallons of water. The next quarterly bill will depict the 2025 rate of $11.92 per 1,000 gallons.

Havrilla said Alcosan treats 83 communities, 80 of which handle their own billing. She said the authority has no control over individual community surcharges.

“Each community has their own surcharge, and that’s up to the community,” Havrilla said.

To keep up with Alcosan’s costs, Penn Hills leadership voted to raise residential rates by 7%, to $24.63 per 1,000 gallons in 2023. The municipality’s service charge of $20 remains unchanged.

Penn Hills Mayor Pauline Calabrese said she and council have “zero control” over Alcosan. In an effort to mitigate costs for residents, council has not raised any rates since 2023, she said.

“If a resident notices a leak, they could seek a ‘leak allowance’ from (Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority) or Oakmont Water Authority,” she said in a statement. “In addition, there are other forms of assistance available. Council and I are fighting for our residents. The bottom line is, we are all in this together because we all live here, too.”

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