Mayor Carney Vetoes Water Billing Compassion Bill, Wilmington Families in Affordability Crisis
Wilmington, DE – Late on Wednesday, July 22, Mayor Carney announced to City Council by way of a letter that he vetoed an ordinance passed earlier this month that would have protected vulnerable Wilmington families from having their water shut off.
The Ordinance aimed to stop the City of Wilmington from using water shut-offs to collect overdue water bills from households with incomes less than 350% of the federal poverty level that include a senior, a person with a disability, or a child under 5. Many other states and municipalities already offer these same, or often even more expansive, safeguards.
“This legislation is basic compassion,” said City Councilmember and sponsor of the legislation, Shane’ Darby. “I speak with families in my district daily who are struggling to pay bills. We are in an affordability crisis, and it’s basic morality that we not leave low-income families with young children, seniors, or people with disabilities without access to life-sustaining water.”
“Vetoing legislation that protects families from water shutoffs is a serious public health mistake,” said Dr. Bryan Haimes, a local internist and pediatrician. “Water is not a luxury—it is essential for life, health, and human dignity. When a home loses running water, families lose the ability to drink safely, cook, bathe, wash their hands, flush toilets, and maintain basic sanitation. Those conditions increase the risk of disease, disproportionately harm children, older adults, and people with chronic illnesses, and can force families into crisis. For households with young children, the loss of running water can also trigger involvement from child welfare agencies and, in some cases, even lead to children being removed from their homes. No family should face those devastating consequences simply because they cannot afford to pay a utility bill. From a public health perspective, our responsibility is to prevent these crises—not make them more likely.”
Wilmington already has a practice of not using water shut-offs to collect overdue water bills from commercial properties, even when they have large overdue balances. In February, according to data from the City of Wilmington, 1,474 commercial customers owed over $5,610,382 in delinquent water charges, an average of over $3,000 per delinquent commercial account.
Yet the City of Wilmington seldom shuts off water for commercial accounts that have overdue water bills. In a February meeting of Wilmington City Council’s Finance and Economic Development Committee, former city Director of Finance Brett Taylor explained the City’s divergent practices for collecting water debt from commercial versus residential accounts. While the Utility has a policy of shutting off water for residential customers who owe $1000 or more,
“There is no threshold for commercial cutoffs.” Taylor explained. “Commercial cutoffs are really complicated. . . You have a multi-plex retail that’s being managed by a property management company, OK, say we shut it off, we shut down 6, 7 businesses at the same time. That has an economic impact. You go to a large office building, ones that are particularly like J.P. Morgan or the Manufacturers Hanover building . . . you shut that off, you’ve shut off a pretty significant amount of your economic [production.]”
“We are living in a two-tiered system when it comes to water billing,” says Shyanne Miller with HOMES Campaign. “Large businesses and non-residential accounts aren’t getting their water service shut off like families in our city are. This is unequal treatment and it’s not right. This water legislation is a basic act of compassion for our most vulnerable families.”
Councilmember Darby’s legislation was years in the making before its passage earlier this month. In disclosures from the city in previous years, the city has consistently admitted to not collecting at times hundreds of thousands of dollars from commercial accounts, while shutting off water to homes for as little as one thousand dollars.
The parcel of property on which the Hotel DuPont sits, as well as several other for-profit businesses, has in recent past owed over $200,000 in water bills to the city. In 2024, the city’s chief of staff at the time shared a document that lists the top twenty commercial water debtors in the city, which included a Dupont company topping out at a whopping $474k owed. The total amount owed by the city’s top 20 commercial debtors in 2024 is in fact more than all of Wilmington’s city residential water debt in 2025.
City Council has 15 days to override Mayor Carney’s veto.
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For more information, please contact Meryem Dede, mdede@tideshiftjustice.org
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Read the legislation here: https://www.wilmingtoncitycouncil.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/Sub.-No.-2-to-Ord.-25-017-Ordinance-to-Amend-Chapter-45-to-Exempt-Residents-from-Water-Disconnection-W0132988x920B6.pdf
What It Does: Prevents the City of Wilmington from shutting off water of a household that includes a senior, a person with a disability, or a child under 5 to collect an overdue water bill.
Who Qualifies: Households that include a senior, a person with a disability, or a child under 5 with incomes less than 350% the federal poverty level. (Approximately: $56,000 for 1 person family, $75,000 for 2 person family, $95,000 for 3 person family, $115,000 for 4 person family).
Why It’s Needed: Protecting vulnerable populations from water shut-offs is crucial for public health and safety. Many states and municipalities offer specific safeguards to prevent disconnections for households that include the young, the old, and the disabled.
How Many Shut-offs Happen a Year:
2023: 60
2024: 57
2025: 48
Why Is It Important: This law is needed even if it protects just one person who is elderly or disabled or one family with young children from going without water.
