If you haven't been paying your sewer bills and you live in the city of Pittsburgh's southern neighborhoods, look out.

The Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority plans to launch a crackdown next month on delinquent sewer bills that could affect 5,700 customers who owe $3.2 million. They'll start getting letters saying, in effect, that they have to start paying or their water will be cut off.

"Our intention is not to put them out of service," said Julie Quigley, the authority's customer service manager. "Our intent is to have the customers come forward with payment."

The authority's board approved the effort yesterday.

The push applies to homes and businesses that receive their water from Pennsylvania American Water or the West View Water Authority but pay their sewer charges to the Pittsburgh Water and Sewer Authority. There are 30,000 customers subject to those arrangements, in the city's southern and some western neighborhoods, and more than one in six of them has sewer bills that are more than 60 days delinquent.

A few owe thousands of dollars. In the past, the authority has had no recourse but to put liens on their properties that must be paid before the deed can change hands.

In February, though, Pittsburgh's authority made a pay-or-shut-off arrangement with the Wilkinsburg-Penn Joint Water Authority, which resulted in the collection of $18,274 in the first month alone. The same model is now being applied in the city's south and west.

Those who owe the most will get warnings first. Businesses and homeowners will have 10 days to start paying their overdue bills, and renters will have 37 days due to tenant protection laws.

Customers can pay everything they owe, start on interest-free payment plans to spread the debt over as long as two years, or have their water service cut. Homes with steam heat will not face shutoff during cold months.

After shutoff, a customer must pay the overdue amount, plus a $50 fee to get the water turned back on.

Authorities have long had the legal right to shut off water if sewer bills aren't paid, said Neighborhood Legal Services attorney Eileen Yacknin. But there are strict rules for exercising that right.

If a delinquent ratepayer sends the water provider a note expressing a "just defense" to the debt, the provider then has to go to court for a shutoff order, she said. Tenants can't have their water cut off as a result of sewer bills incurred before they moved in.

In other matters, the authority finalized a consulting contract with Greg Tutsock, its former executive director, that will pay him the equivalent of his $116,000-a-year salary for as long as seven months. Mr. Tutsock, who was shown the door by Mayor Luke Ravenstahl, also will get health insurance benefits through early January while he helps with budgeting, labor negotiations and other matters. The authority is seeking a long-term replacement.

The authority's draft budget does not contain any rate changes for next year, its board Chairman Don Walko said.