WEST UNIVERSITY PLACE, Texas — We've been covering high-water bills, in the City of Houston for more than a year. So, we wanted to see how other cities are handling the issue.
It's a much smaller city, but West University Place is working to get ahead of high water bill issues. They use the same program Houston is starting to use for some customers with new remote reading devices, but West U has rolled it out to the whole city.
"You wouldn't know, I got a large bill and I had to search the house and find it was a toilet leak," said Mayor Susan Sample, of West University Place.
That was before her city rolled out a new system, Sample said.
"Now, I get a daily alert if it goes over a certain amount," she said.
H2Online was launched in May 2023 to give customers a way to monitor their daily water usage and avoid the sticker shock of high bills.
"I think it prevented some surprises because City of Houston and even we at some point, if a meter reader couldn't get in your backyard and you get bills, they seem fine. Then, three months later a giant bill, and people don't understand," Sample said.
In the past, when meters couldn't be physically read and bills were estimated, Sample said it led to confusion. With the new technology, powered by a company called Sensus, there's no guessing. Residents can see how much water they use hour by hour and set daily, even vacation alerts.
"If it is excessively high, someone uses maybe a thousand galloon a month, now it's 10,000, we reach out to those residents," said Marie Kalka, West University Place's Finance Director.
She said being proactive saves residents and the city time and money.
"That's how you can tell a city is running well when people are not complaining and asking for leak adjustments or having us come out to try to figure out what's going on," Sample said.
H2Online is a free service, available to all West U residents and you can find more information about it here.
Right now, in the City of Houston, less than 1/5 of customers are eligible for the same hour-by-hour alerts because you have to have a new remote reading device in your meter and not everyone does.
Thursday morning watch KHOU 11 Morning News as we continue to report on water meter issues and how long it could take for Houston to make the same technology available to everyone.
If you have a problem and need help, email GraceCanHelp@khou.com, call (713) 521-HELP or fill out the form below.