Delinquent Customers Face Loss of Water

The city is closing its pipes for delinquent water customers, warning 93 properties to pay their water bills or face a service shutdown. According to the city's Department of Environmental Protection, 94% of the properties that received a warning responded by paying up, with five still facing a loss of water in their houses.

"The vast majority of New Yorkers pay their water bills, but there have been some who have not paid because they haven't believed there would be consequences," the commissioner of the DEP, Emily Lloyd, said in a statement yesterday. "That will not be the case going forward."

The affected properties are single-family residential houses that were targeted as part of a new incentive program, which offers delinquent water customers amnesty from late fees if they pay their bills, as well as help negotiating a payment plan.