Family questions $10,000 water bill after repairs

I told you earlier in the newscast about skyrocketing DWP bills and how that's taking center stage in the L.A. mayor's race. Tonight, a perfect example as we're hearing from one customer who says his bill went from $900 to $10,000. Fox 11's Christina Gonzalez back again live in Sunland with that customer's story. Christina. Yeah, and that customer happens to be a plumber. And he says he's been trying to get DWP to listen to him because he believes the problem began. And let me show you when this fire hydrant that you see here, it's right up the street from his property. It was damaged and it was repaired. Listen. Social media posts show the sheared fire hydrant on Sunland Boulevard last November. There we go. The neighborhood lost water during the repairs, but that's actually when the problems began for Josh Ward. Next thing you know, our February bill comes and it's over $10,000. Here's that $10,000 plus bill. Now, look at the jump in the usage bars. Compare it to the hottest part of that summer. His August 2025 bill, $1,400. And here are the bills for spring and summer of this record heat year. $765 April, $640 for June. Josh, who is a plumber, believes a sudden $10,000 plus charge is related to the fire hydrant repairs. They did the repairs as per procedure. You're supposed to do what is called purging the line of all the air, and I don't believe they did that. Making weird noises, like weird noises coming out of the faucets and everything, and I was like, it's just air. The way the meters work and the way that they read and track our usage is done by volume, and there's a big difference between the volume of air going through your meter and the volume of water going through. air seems to will spin your meter at this at a very rapid rate compared to how water goes through and that would explain the massive difference in the price you think that's the only thing i can come to logically for them to say that we use uh 500,000 gallons of water in a two-month period six gallons a minute for the entire two months every minute of the day it just happens to coincide that our two largest bills we've ever had on the property line up with the two days that you guys are doing work. It just doesn't make sense. And he was showing us the water pressure on his hose while he was watering. He actually has a drip system for the entire garden. He's very water conscious. So we have reached out to DWP and actually they're telling us they're gonna look into this a little bit more to see what is going on. And of course, we'll let you know what happens. I'm Christina Gonzalez, back to you in the studio, Christine. I'd like to see how this one wraps up. All right, Christina, thanks so much.