Extremely High Water Bills

In her post on November 5, 2012, my colleague, Daily Casallo, discusses an article from KXAN News about high water bills and how they are being refunded. Citizens have noticed their water bill amount increasing and that they have not been paying attention to their bills. Daily states that some people are paying over $3,000 for their water bill. For those who believe their bill is abnormally high, they can call 3-1-1 and someone will come out and check and see if there are any leaks or anything else out of the ordinary. 

Just like Daily, I too started wondering if our water bill was what they consider "normal" or higher than usual. I do not pay the bill so I never know what the total bill is. I looked at our bill and from 9/20 to 10/22 for our Water Service we (total of 3 people) used 4,600 gallons for a total of $21.85 and for our Wastewater Service we paid $38.62. A $3,000 water bill is RIDICULOUS!!!!! After looking at our water bill, if ours was $3,000 we would be extremely confused as we don't possibly use that much water and would want a refund.

My only suggestion would have been to note that Austin Water Utility's billing is now being handled by Austin Energy and it is suggested that a new system that has been used since October 2011 may have had some hiccups resulting in the bill increases, according to the article. I think this is very important in explaining to the readers/customers the reason for why they are being billed outrageously. Everyone does have the right to be treated and billed fairly and also to question the price of the bill if they believe there is an error. It may be a common trend that people do not question the utility company and have been and continue to be billed in error and their money is going down the drain, just like their water...