CFPUA planned to rollout a pilot program that would heavily restrict some customers’ water flow in January. The program has been delayed until March. (Port City Daily/File photo)
NEW HANOVER COUNTY — While Cape Fear Public Utility Authority will continue its vow of continuing to provide water access to customers behind on payments, a new initiative — which at a meeting this week was delayed until March 2021 — will experiment with restricting the water flow to a select group of those who have outstanding water bills.
Staff at CFPUA are facing a dilemma. Though there are more than 6,000 customers who are late on payments by two months or more — equal to $2.7 million in lost income, or about 3% of the annual operating budget — there is little motivation to start cutting off residential water access during a pandemic.