Neighborhoods protest water rate increase by new utility company

Residents in area neighborhoods receiving water or sewer service from Texas American Water, formerly known as Southwest Utilities, are being urged to attend one of two community meetings.
The meetings are being organized to prepare the residents for an upcoming hearing before the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on the proposed rate increase. The first meeting will be on Tuesday, June 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the Community Room at the Aldine Sheriff’s Storefront located at 5202 Aldine Mail. The second meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 27 at 7 p.m. in the Community Room at Pep Mueller Park located at 14750 Henry Road.
Earlier this year a group of area residents from Greenwood Village led by Representative Kevin Bailey and community leader Irene Garcia successfully forced an international utility company into a contested water rate hearing. The water utilities for several North Houston neighborhoods, were purchased last year by one of the world’s largest energy corporations in the world and the new owner immediately filed a rate increase.
“I made a commitment to support area residents in their fight against a company that is attempting to increase water rates more than 33% and sewer rates more than 60%,” said Bailey. “We already suffer from extremely high electric rates at the hands of powerful electric providers and now many of my constituents are receiving water bills as high as their electric bills. It has hit elderly residents living alone and the disabled particularly hard. We are determined to fight this outrageous increase.”

Bailey went on to explain that he has requested assistance from the East Aldine Management District so the residents will have legal support when the contested rate case goes to hearing. The hearing process is required by law if more than 10% of the utility’s customers request a hearing so residents of the Greenwood Village neighborhood went door to door with petitions to reach the threshold required to force the hearing.
Since the EAMD is not a utility customer they do not have legal standing in the case. However, they have employed Austin attorney Jim Boyle to review documents submitted from Texas American Water to the TCEQ and to serve in an advisory capacity.
According to Arlene Nichols, who works in Bailey’s Houston office, the best defense for residents is to attend the meetings and consider forming an organization that can go on record in opposition to the rate increase. This, she added, is commonly done in mobile home parks, where the park itself serves as a stronger voice than each individual customer.
Local neighborhoods served by the company include Greenwood Village, Mary Francis, Colonial Hills, Aldine Meadows, Bergville, Bertrand, Kenwood and Stretner.
If you have any questions regarding the upcoming meeting or about the contested case hearing, please contact the District Office of State Representative Kevin Bailey at 281-847-9000.