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 is keeping her from coping.
Every other day, Mann drives several miles to a friend’s house to fill a five-gallon jug from a garden hose. That water is what she uses to wash the dishes, wash her hands and flush the toilets – her only supply after she decided last November to completely disconnect her water service.
“I choose to eat, and I told them that every time it goes up, that takes away from my money a month for my food,” Mann told 13 Investigates (1) of ABC13.
Mann lives alone on a monthly Social Security check that she carefully budgeted around when she retired. There was enough to cover her bills, but barely. When the base fees charged by her supplier – a for-profit company called Texas Water Utilities – kept going up, she felt overwhelmed. A termination notice came, and I didn’t fight it. “You don’t need to send me one. Come cut my water. I can’t stand 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, the fees alone — base charges for water and sewer, pass-through charges and a state fee — totaled $150.18. Its current water and sewage use that billing cycle came to $9.34.
This means that roughly 94% of her bill had nothing to do with how much water came out of her faucet.
By September 2025, those base fees had dropped slightly to $138.58 but still far beyond what her budget could absorb. A City of Houston customer using the same 2,000 gallons paid a total of $57.
Mann said she could run if her bill was closer to the $60 a month she pays 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 proposed tacking on a $34 monthly “system improvement fee” to recoup more than $80 million in infrastructure spending.
The company is expanding. But the cost problem it represents is spreading throughout the country.
Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison found that investor-owned water utilities charge, on average, substantially more than their publicly owned counterparts, even after controlling for system size, water source and region (2). A 2024 analysis by Bluefield Research found that the combined water and sewer bill for a typical American home jumped 4.6% in one 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% of median household income.
And the industry is consolidating rapidly. In late 2025, American Water Works and Essential Utilities announced a $40 billion merger that would combine the nation’s two largest municipal water and sewer companies (4). Food & Water Watch described the agreement as a step towards a “dangerous and anti-consumer monopoly” (5).
Part of what makes these accounts so painful for low-usage customers like Mann is their structure. A December 2024 EPA report to Congress found that water rate structures have grown more regressive over time — utilities are collecting less through volumetric charges 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 shrunk. 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, with no replacement (7). There is no permanent federal water assistance program equivalent to LIHEAP, which covers heating and cooling. In a January 2026 analysis, the National Consumer Law Center and the Natural Resources Defense Council argued that water affordability needs to be treated with the same political urgency as energy costs — and that seniors on fixed incomes are bearing 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 full cost of service, with all rates approved by the Texas Public Utility Commission. The PUCT said that the utilities owned by the investors must show why a rate increase is necessary, and the commission will only approve increases that it considers fair and reasonable.
The company also offers a $40 per month financial assistance program for qualifying customers.
When 13 Investigates followed up with Mann recently, she had come out of retirement — driven in large part, she said, by her water bill. She still carries the jugs. Still choosing between water and groceries.
“They’re not regulating them. You let them do what they want to do, and people are complaining, but basically they’re getting the same response I’m getting,” she said.
You can’t fix a broken rate structure on your own, but you don’t have to quietly accept it either.
1. Read your bill like a financial statement. See which charges are fixed and which are tied to usage. If fees make up the bulk of your bill — as they did for Mann — then your short shower won’t change much. But knowing the layout tells you where to focus your fight.
2. Fix leaks before they fix your budget. The EPA estimates that household waste leaks about 10,000 gallons per year (9). A self-powered toilet can flush hundreds of gallons a day. Quick test: drop food coloring into the tank, wait 10 minutes, and check the bowl.
3. Change to low flow equipment. Products that carry 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 dollars and pay for themselves in a billing cycle or two.
4. Apply for help — even if you think you won’t qualify. Federal LIHWAP funding has ended, but many utilities and states still run their own programs. Texas Water Utilities offers $40 per month for qualifying customers. American Water’s H2O Help to Others Program provides grants of up to $500 per year (10). Your local Community Action Agency or Benefits.gov can indicate what is available in your area.
5. File a complaint with your state’s 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 obligated to review — and when enough of them are collected, rate cases are opened.
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We rely only on verified sources and credible reporting from third parties. For details, see our 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); Food and Water Watch (5); United States Environmental Protection Agency (6, 9); US Administration for Children and Families (7); National Consumer Law Center / NRDC (8); American Water (10); Public Utility Commission of Texas (11)
This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
