One day after resuming shutting off delinquent accounts, the Birmingham Water Works Board has announced a temporary halt to the enforcement process – due to the threat of severe weather.

BWWB spokesman Rick Jackson said the disconnections will resume Friday morning at 8 a.m.

The BWWB announced plans earlier this year to go back to the practice of cutting off water where account holders are delinquent, a practice which had been on hold during the height of the pandemic and as the utility struggled to right its own billing system. The water works operated for more than a year with billing problems that resulted in widespread chaos for thousands of BWWB customers.

Many customers didn’t get bills on time, hundreds got bills that were substantially larger than many could pay, resulting in personnel changes at the BWWB, increased scrutiny and criticism by citizens, city, county, and state officials, and apparent distrust of the utility and its billing system and management practices.

The BWWB blamed the billing issues on staffing shortages, and indicated that the end of those problems would lead to a resumption of business as usual – cutting off water for delinquent accounts. Although customers continue to complain about billing problems, the BWWB has repeatedly urged those impacted by billing or the threat of losing water service to seek assistance through the utility’s customer service department.

In the Thursday press release announcing the temporary stop to shutoff operations, the water works said that “Since the resumption of water disconnects on delinquent accounts, our call volume has increased substantially. We asked that customers be patient as wait times are longer than usual.”