Steve IA wrote:
....

Talked to a couple more neighbors and their December bill was also
higher than expected. I will verify with the REC that these readings
were not estimated. The clerk who I spoke to may not know the whole story.

Don't you know your neighbor who's almost surely the reader to talk to
directly? How big a REC is this? Do you go to the annual meetings?
You, after all, are a co-op member here...

On top of the above leakage path identified, what about ice-damage etc.?
Also, if you're still really deeply concerned, the other respondent
mentioned a sump pump stuck on; we had a well pump run continuously for
quite some time (owing to a small enough that it could keep the system
pressurized so it wasn't noticeable in water service) and it was the
neighbor who discovered it when she read the meter (owing to water
management requirements, wells other than only household here are
required to be metered separately to record estimated water usage for
water table usage estimates) and noticed it was way out of line...

Also, still no information on the actual degree-days of that particular
month as compared to the historical averages...add up a few per cent for
the discovered leakage, a few percent for temperature, and a little for
unfound or perhaps a recording error from the previous month and it
could well end up within the range of expected usage...

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