HOUSTON – Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner had a news conference on Monday to discuss the nine legal changes that have been proposed to address recent water leaks and billing problems in the area following KPRC 2′s “DRAINED” investigation.
KPRC 2 began its ‘DRAINED’ investigation in 2022.
Here are the proposed changes to ordinances the mayor announced.
1. Remove the ordinance that only allows customers to get two leak adjustments in a year
2. Allows customers to adjust their water bills at 100% of their rate if they repair the leak within 30 days
- Customers may receive 75% rate adjustment for repairing the leak within 60 days after it began
- Customers may receive 50% rate adjustment for repairing 60 days or more after the leak problem started
3. Customers would get 100% credit on wastewater charges
4. Officials want to reduce the leak balance remaining amount from $2,000 to $1,000 and from $250 to $100 for those who qualify
5. If someone receives an unusually large bill, the customer responsibility percentage will decrease from 150% to 125% of the monthly average water usage
6. For an exceptional circumstance adjustment or bill reduction, people’s bills would need to be two times their average monthly bill. The account may be reduced by up to $10,000.
7. Offer customers a less expensive option to remove monthly base charges
- The customer would have the option to have their meter locked for a one-time fee of about $150, then all base charges would be removed from the account
8. Customers will save 50 cents on each monthly bill once they sign up for monthly electronic bills.
9. Want to codify the current practice that does not permit officials to look back and charge people after three months have passed since the bill was received. This applies to single-family residential customers.
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