Another resident said their water usage jumped from 400 cubic feet in July to 6,500 cubic feet during the outage months — an average of about 1,300 cubic feet per month in five billing cycles.
The Journal‑News contacted the city for clarification on how the bills were calculated and what steps were taken to ensure accuracy.
Ken Brown, communications manager for the city of Middletown, said the water bills sent in January were calculated using actual meter readings.
“Usage during the cyber incident is determined by subtracting the last meter reading from the current meter reading,” he said.
According to Brown, neither the physical water meters nor the Meter Transmission Units — the devices that transmit readings to the city — were affected by the August cyber incident, ensuring the accuracy of the readings.
“We understand that extenuating circumstances can arise, and our team has always worked with our residents and customers to address those issues,” Brown said.
Middletown restored water billing in mid‑January following a months‑long billing outage caused by a cyberattack that occurred in mid‑August.
The city established a grace period through Aug. 31, 2026 for customers to pay balances accrued during the outage. These charges appear in the “current due” section of January water bills, and no late fees will be charged during the grace period on this amount.
Beginning with the bill following the first bill of 2026, charges related to the cyber incident will move to the “past due” section. Customers may make partial payments on those charges as long as the balance is paid in full by Aug. 31.
Automatic payments have been disabled for all accounts, and customers must manually re‑enroll if they wish to use autopay. If reactivated, autopay will withdraw the full amount due.
Starting with the next billing cycle, customers are required to pay all new “current due” charges received.
Customers will only be subject to water shutoffs if the balance related to the cyber incident is not paid by Aug. 31. After the first bill of 2026, failure to pay required monthly charges listed under “current charges” could also result in service shutoff.
CONTACT DETAILS
Middletown residents with questions about their water bills may contact the city’s Water Services team at 855‑967‑0310. Full billing information is available at tinyurl.com/MiddletownWater.
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