More than 40,000 residents received an early morning text from the city of Tallahassee indicating their water meters detected continuous water usage, causing alarm and scores of social media posts about the curious overnight text.
It caused mass confusion and some residents conducted a pre-dawn search for leaks or busted pipes at their homes. Others flooded the city’s customer service phoneline in search of clarity; some said they were on the phone for more than an hour.
The text, sent at 3:46 a.m. Feb. 3, said the user’s water meter “has recorded continuous water use for at least 24 hours” at their address, along with a meter badge number associated with the account and a city phone number to call between 6 a.m. and 11 p.m. for assistance.
City officials initially said the texts were not a glitch and were likely directed to people who dripped their faucets overnight or experienced a pipe break.
However, some people who got the notices reported they didn’t drip their faucets at all, and others who did drip faucets didn’t receive a text.
“We’re still investigating the full extent of the notifications,” said James Barnes, the city’s chief customer operations officer, who in an earlier conversation said it wasn’t a glitch. “Our analytics are set to send that notification to citizens who have high water use.”
And at about 11 a.m. the city acknowledged in a follow-up text message that the alert system led to “some customers being inadvertently notified.”
Text alert causes city and its residents to scramble
As of just before 9:30 a.m., Barnes said approximately 25,000 city customers had read texts or opened emails about the continuous water usage alerts. He said messages were rescinded for the customers who did not open or read the alerts.
The issue prompted the city to dispatch field crews to randomly go out to homes that received the email or text notification to confirm whether or not a leak is detected. Barnes told the Democrat the issue is still in an “exploration stage.”
Some customers said they were told by city customer service reps and utilities officials that it was a glitch. One customer even said her meter wasn’t on and she still got the notice. However, Barnes said the system is designed to detect constant use like a leak or dripping faucet.
A screenshot of a text message received Feb. 3 from the City of Tallahassee about water use.
“When it looked at the last several days with a lot of people running their faucets or dripped them from freezing, it picked up on the message you received,” said Barnes, adding the duration could span several days or one day where water dripped overnight. “That message that you received it from those that have used the water, usually over the last few days and have a higher than normal usage or the possibility of a leak.”
Barnes also said the alerts have prompted the city to recalibrate its system because “we didn’t design it for thousands of people to run their water overnight for several days.”
After the Democrat published an article about the confusion, the city issued a text message explaining the situation and apologizing for the early morning text.
“As a valued City water utility customer, you may have received notification early this morning of continuous water usage,” the message said. “This is a proactive function of the system that alerts customers of a potential leak. New information related to our attempt to help residents and businesses resulted in some customers being inadvertently notified. If the system falsely alerted you of an issue, we apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.”
Contact Economic Development Reporter TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com and follow @TaMarynWaters on X.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Tallahassee Utilities ‘water use’ text alert prompts confusion