Christina Mann moved from Cleveland, Texas to the small community of Point Blank four years ago when she retired. She wanted to retire close to the water, a dream of hers. Now, water is the nightmare that prevents it from coming to fruition.
Every other day, Mann drives several miles to a friend’s house to fill five-gallon jugs from a garden hose. That water is what she uses to wash dishes, wash her hands and flush her toilets — her only source after deciding last November to completely disconnect her water service.
“I choose to eat, and I told them every time you go up, that takes a month out of my money for food,” Mann told ABC13’s 13 Investigates (1).
Mann lives alone on a monthly Social Security check that she carefully budgeted for when she retired. It was enough to cover his bills, but barely. When the basic fees charged by her supplier — a for-profit company called Texas Water Utilities — kept rising, she felt cornered. A termination notice arrived, and she didn’t fight. “You don’t have to send me one. Just come and turn off my water. I can’t afford it,” she said.
According to a copy of Mann’s bill reviewed by 13 Investigates, she was charged $169 for a month in which she used only 2,000 gallons. In July alone, the fees — basic water and sewer fees, tolls and a state fee — totaled $150.18. Water and its actual sewage use that billing cycle came to $9.34.
That means about 94% of her bill had nothing to do with how much water came out of the tap.
By September 2025, those base fees had dropped slightly to $138.58, but still well beyond what her budget could absorb. A customer in the city of Houston who used the same 2,000 gallons paid a total of $57.
Mann said she could handle it if her bill was closer to the roughly $60 a month she paid back in Cleveland.
Mann’s supplier, Texas Water Utilities, is an investor-owned utility — a for-profit company, not a city-run system. Texas Water Utilities serves about 60,000 customers in 32 counties, is acquiring at least four other companies and has requested a $34-a-month “system improvement fee” to recoup more than $80 million in infrastructure spending.
The company is expanding. But the cost problem it represents is spreading nationally.
Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that investor-owned water utilities charge, on average, much more than their public counterparts, even after controlling for system size, water source, and region (2). A 2024 analysis from Bluefield Research found that the combined water and sewer bill for a typical American household rose 4.6% in a single year—and about 24% over five years (3). In Birmingham, Alabama and Cleveland, Ohio, those bills now exceed the EPA’s affordability threshold of 4.5 percent of median household income.
And the industry is consolidating rapidly. In late 2025, American Water Works and Essential Utilities announced a $40 billion merger combining the nation’s two largest municipal water and wastewater companies (4). Food & Water Watch described the deal as a step towards a “dangerous, anti-consumer monopoly” (5).
Part of what makes these bills so painful for low-usage customers like Mann is their structure. A December 2024 EPA report to Congress found that water rate structures have become more regressive over time—utilities collect less through volumetric fees based on actual consumption and more through flat fees that apply regardless of how little water a household uses (6). That’s the math behind a $9 water bill that costs $169.
Meanwhile, the safety net has thinned. The Low Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), a pandemic-era federal program that helped more than 1.5 million households cover their water bills, expired on March 31, 2024 without a replacement (7). There is no permanent federal water assistance program equivalent to LIHEAP that covers heating and cooling. In a January 2026 analysis, the National Consumer Law Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council argued that water affordability must be treated with the same political urgency as energy costs—and that seniors on fixed incomes bear a disproportionate share of the burden (8).
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Texas Water Utilities told 13 Investigates that its customers do not pay separate municipal utility district (MUD) fees, so its monthly bill represents the total cost of service, with all rates approved by the Texas Public Utilities Commission. The PUCT said investor-owned utilities must demonstrate why a rate increase is necessary, and the commission only approves increases it deems fair and reasonable.
The company also offers a $40 per month financial assistance program for qualified customers.
When 13 Investigates caught up with Mann recently, she came out of retirement — in large part, she said, because of her water bill. She still pulls jugs. I’m still choosing between water and food.
“They don’t regulate them. You let them do what they want, and people complain, but they basically get the same response I get,” she said.
You can’t fix a broken rate structure yourself, but you don’t have to accept it quietly either.
1. Read the invoice like a financial statement. Find out which rates are fixed and which are linked to usage. If fees make up the bulk of your bill — as they did for Mann — then the short shower discount won’t change much. But knowing the breakdown tells you where to focus your fight.
2. Fix leaks before they eat into your budget. The EPA estimates that household waste is about 10,000 gallons per year (9). Just one running toilet can burn hundreds of gallons a day. Quick Test: Drop food coloring into the reservoir, wait 10 minutes, and check the bowl.
3. Change low flow fixtures. Products bearing the EPA’s WaterSense label use at least 20% less water than standard models. A WaterSense toilet can reduce toilet-related water use by up to 60% – about 13,000 gallons per year. Faucet aerators run a few bucks and pay for themselves in a billing cycle or two.
4. Ask for help – even if you don’t think you’ll qualify. Federal LIHWAP funding has disappeared, but many utilities and states still run their own programs. Texas Water Utilities offers $40 per month for qualified customers. American Water’s H2O Help to Others program offers grants of up to $500 annually (10). Your local community action agency or Benefits.gov can tell you what’s available in your area.
5. File a complaint with the state utility commission. In Texas, the PUCT accepts consumer complaints directly (11). Every state has a version of this. A formal complaint creates a paper trail that regulators are required to look into — and when enough are collected, charging cases are opened.
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We only rely on verified sources and credible third-party reports. For details, see editorial ethics and guidelines.
ABC13 / KTRK Houston, 13 investigates (1); University of Wisconsin-Madison / Water and Health Advisory Council (2); Bluefield Research (3); WHY / NPR (4); Watch Food & Water Watch (5); US Environmental Protection Agency (6, 9); US Administration for Children and Families (7); National Consumer Law Center / NRDC (8); american water (10); Public Utilities Commission of Texas (11)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. Offered without warranty of any kind.
