Capital One disputes huge bill for water

Capital One Financial Corp. wants to know why Goochland County billed it for 23 million gallons of water during a two-month period last year when it used only 1 million gallons during the same period the year before.

The credit-card company paid the bill for $96,256 but is asking the county to investigate.

It's the latest in a growing list of questions that Goochland is trying to answer about its utilities department.

Late last year, Capital One settled the invoice from the county for July and August water usage at its West Creek campus. But in a letter to the county dated Jan. 27, Capital One's facility manager, Grubb & Ellis Management Services Inc., wondered "how a quantity of water roughly equivalent to 38 standard Olympic-sized swimming pools could have completely disappeared without giving any evidence of flooding, sinkholes, or as much as saturated ground."

"We're in the process of trying to figure out what the heck happened," said Don Charles, the county's community development director, who is now overseeing utilities.

Charles took over the department in December after the clerk and director were terminated in the aftermath of an investigation that uncovered almost $200,000 in undeposited checks dating back two years. County Administrator Gregory K. Wolfrey announced his resignation this week.

Capital One's bill, sent in October, was for water measured by three meters on the campus: two for landscaping uses and one for a building on the campus.

The campus is served by Goochland's Tuckahoe Creek Service District, which also has had reports of foul-smelling water in the Kinloch subdivision in recent months.

The letter from Capital One's property manager states that Doug Harvey, the county's previous director of utilities, told the county shortly after sending the bill that it appeared the campus had a large leak.

A minor leak on the property was found and repaired, but the company still wonders how the volume of water measured by the same meters during the previous four years could have escaped in two months without a trace.

"There's definitely something screwed up there," said county Supervisor Ned S. Creasey. He added that a full investigation in the Tuckahoe Creek district may be necessary.

Other members of the West Creek Property Owners Association also have reported higher-than-normal water bills during the same time period, the letter from Grubb & Ellis states.

Charles agreed that because each of the three meters on Capital One's campus experienced a spike at the same time and by the same percentage, it seemed unlikely that there was a leak in one of the lines, though he said the consumption recorded was still under capacity.

"It physically, hydraulically could have happened," he said. "We're getting into it and trying to eliminate all the possible variables, get all of our facts straight, double-check the accuracy of the meters and make sure it wasn't something stupid liked misplacing a decimal point. We're as curious about it as Capital One is."

The county's Board of Supervisors in November denied Capital One a request to adjust the bill, though it did grant a 12-month extension. The company opted to pay it in full.

Capital One declined to comment yesterday except to say it was looking into the matter with the cooperation of the county.

Neither the company nor the county would say what the increase in cost had been compared with 2007.

Contact Wesley P. Hester at (804) 649-6976 or .