New York City officials are going to shut the water off to those not paying the bill.
DEP Commissioner Rit Aggarwala points out that thousands of homes and office buildings owe a combined 800 million dollars for water usage.
"There is so much debt that went uncollected during the pandemic."
He says while some are struggling financially, many others are refusing to pay and he says the DEP is going to start handing out shutoff notices, first to those who owe a lot.
"We are not kidding around here because If we don't do this our bond rating is at risk and that will drive up our interest rates and that means water bills go up for everybody."
The city is offering an amnesty program that waives interest on water bills if they are paid by the end of this month.