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Mill Creek resident Audrey Amirian shows her sign that she brought to Magnolia's city council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 9, which shows several amounts from resident's water bills.

Mill Creek residents attended Magnolia's city council meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 9 to voice concerns over skyrocketing water bills, with some residents being charged $1,700 in some instances. 

Mill Creek resident Bridgit Spencer told the Houston Chronicle that she calls her lawn "hay" as most of it is dead and makes 'hay-like' noises when walking over it. Some residents of the subdivision have stopped using their sprinklers to combat skyrocketing water bills.

After monitoring their water use and shutting off their sprinkler systems — even going so far as to letting their lawns die — several Mill Creek subdivision residents appeared before Magnolia City Council Tuesday to ask why they have been receiving high water bills over the past several months. 

When bringing this to the city's water and wastewater department earlier this year, residents say they were told the reasons for the high bills varied from water bursts, described as when a person uses the shower and the toilet at the same time, to water leaks. However, neither their builder, Arlington-based D.R. Horton, nor the city council offered what residents felt was a clear answer to the high water bills. 

Mill Creek resident Bridgit Spencer, who's lived in the subdivision since July 2021, said she's had water bills ranging from $300 to $1,700. 

"The thing is, if it was just one home with this outrageous water bill, that could be understandable," Spencer told the Houston Chronicle. "But ... it is literally everyone in the subdivision."

Spencer lives with her husband and her four children. The lowest bill Spencer received was $165, during a time when she had 11 family members from Virginia staying with her. 

"It looked like it could have been a regular water bill," Spencer said. "I was like, 'How did I get a water bill that's $165, when I know for a fact that I had 11 people ... constantly using water?'"

Spencer said at the city council meeting she was provided a PDF of the in-city water rates by the water and wastewater department, which stated that any resident that uses 1,000 gallons of water or less would be charged a base pay of $21. Anything over 1,000 gallons, residents would be charged $3.65 per gallon. 

However, Mayor Todd Kana told Mill Creek residents at the meeting they actually pay out-of-city water rates, meaning residents using 1,000 gallons of water or less would be charged a base pay of $40. Anything over 1,000 gallons, residents would be charged $5.50 per gallon. 

Spencer provided a bill where she was charged for using 19 gallons of water.

"Before she was through speaking, Councilwoman (Brenda) Hoppe clarified the bill was correct, based on the out-of-city water rates," Kana said about Spencer's bill. "I can't verify if the meter reading was correct, but the math on the bill was correct."

One speaker at the meeting said he convinced his mother who lives in the subdivision to move from Albuquerque, New Mexico, in order to be close to him after his father's death. He added that he has a sprinkler system, three kids and a wife "who loves to run the water." They used 37,000 gallons of water last month, while his mother's water bill read that she used 35,000 gallons of water by herself. 

In comparison, the average pool takes up to 18,000 to 20,000 gallons of water. 

Spencer said she was once charged for 125,000 gallons of water usage, or about six swimming pools worth. 

"My house is not flooding, my grass is dead ... I live in a two-story home," Spencer said. "If I had that much water in there, my home would be flooded without a question."

Another resident, who moved into the subdivision in June, told council members he was billed $123 for April and May — before he and his wife were even living in the house. The water meter moved from 10 to 17, indicating 7,000 gallons of water used. His current water bill is $446 for 31,000 gallons of water used.

"I'm a disabled vet," the resident told city council members. "I'm on a fixed income. I can't pay this."

He was told by the the city water and wastewater department that "it could be the neighbors water passing through my meter, it could be a water burst, it could be my sprinklers."

"I understand that these could be real causes, but ... this increase within this amount of time, we (have) been there for two months and already this is changing our entire budget. ... Our entire lifestyle has changed."

Documents provided by Spencer showed that city workers came out to inspect the water meter for leaks in November 2021, and that they found none. PGS Landscaping, a commercial lawn care services based in Magnolia, also inspected the sprinkler system at Spencer's property and found no leaks. 

Between October 2021 to November 2021, Spencer was charged $794.80 for using 137,000 gallons of water.

Other residents like Chris Turner said the issue could be with the water meters, which are smart water meters manufactured by Kamstrup, a manufacturer based in Roswell, Georgia.

Turner told council members that he and his wife monitored their meter when using water, adding that he had his wife turn on and off a water source quickly. The meter showed that 13 gallons of water was used. 

He suggested there could be calibration issues with the device that reads the meter via Bluetooth.

Turner cited other similar incidents that have happened across the state, where other water customers experienced high water bills, like in Williamson County in 2021 and Houston in 2022. 

"A small city like this should be able to stand up for each other," Turner told the city council members. "We should be able to talk to each other and figure out problems together. We shouldn't have to fight ... we don't want to pit us against you."

Kana said the month of July was the first he had heard of the issue. He added he's not yet convinced there is an equipment or communication issue.

"It's really rare that a meter reads incorrectly," Kana said. "But I would never say it's impossible."

He added that the city is still working on a solution and that the next step is to use a different water meter in several areas of the city to verify the accuracy of the meters.

"We're looking to make sure there's not a transmission issue in the electronic reading of the meters," Kana said. "We have the representative of our current meters supposed to be out in the city ... next week to verify the accuracy of the meters as well as a third party company that calibrates and verifies accuracy of meters.

"We are working through this and we will resolve any issues."

On Aug. 10, several residents experienced little to no water between the morning until the afternoon. Mill Creek resident Audrey Amirian provided pictures of her water meter between during the water outage that showed her using over 10 gallons of water. 

Kana said the city will not be cutting anyone's water supply in Mill Creek but encouraged customers to pay what they believe to be a fair amount in order to maintain their account.

"We're not cutting people off until we get to the bottom of this," he said.

Michael Garcia is a suburban reporter/producer for the Houston Chronicle.

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