I have received some additional questions about water bills since my first post about how water usage and billing is calculated in Flower Mound. As you can imagine, providing water for a municipality is not a simple process. I have received some comments implying that the Town and Town Council are doing nothing about the occurrence of recent high water bills and that is untrue. Since the start of high water bill reports, the Town has been looking for a possible cause or any issue that may arise.
The Town researched the amount of water purchased, billed, and what remains in our water supply. There was, and is, not a discrepancy in the amount of water purchased, used, and billed. That indicates there is no major, system-wide overbilling error. The Town will continue to diligently monitor the amount of water purchased, billed, and amount on-hand, which is the most reliable and immediate indicator of a potential billing issue.
Town staff also investigated the reports of high billing in an effort to try to find a common indicator, which revealed the following inconsistencies:
- People who reported receiving an unusually high water bill had old meters, new meters, and in-between meters. Other water customers with the same type and age of water meter were not reporting issues.
- Reporting residents were located in different neighborhoods, with neighbors not reporting the same issue.
- They live in various sizes of homes and lots.
- This is not specific to Flower Mound. There were reports of similar incidences in various areas around Texas and the media has reported on it.
Our Town’s Utility Billing staff continues to help residents understand their bill, offer inspections to check for leaks, and to upgrade people to newer meters for even more detailed billing and usage information, if requested.
There was one correlation between the 2016 reports of unusually high water bills and similar reports in 2015. Water usage seemed to dramatically increase during a month with high heat and little rain, following a month with cooler temperatures and/or more rain. We have been lucky to have experienced several rainy months recently. The past two summers (2015 and 2016) have been relatively mild and wet, except for about a four-week period where temperatures peaked and there was little rainfall.
Are we ruling out a possible issue? No. Our town’s utility billing staff is on high alert for issues and bring anomalies to the attention of the executive team. I have the utmost confidence and respect in the professionalism, experience, and abilities of our Town’s staff to work with residents to help where possible. If you have an issue, please contact them at 972.874.6010 and they will work with you.
If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to email me at [email protected].
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