Retired Texas senior cuts off water due to spiking fees. Here's the monstrous monthly cost (and why she chooses to eat instead)

"I choose to eat, and I told them that every time you go up, that takes out of my money a month for my food," Mann told ABC13's 13 Investigates (1).

Mann lives alone on a monthly Social Security check she budgeted carefully around when she retired. There was enough to cover her bills, but barely. When the base fees charged by her provider — a for-profit company called Texas Water Utilities — kept climbing, she felt cornered. A termination notice arrived, and she didn't fight it. "You don't need to send me one. Just come cut my water off. I can't afford it," she said.

Stunning fees piled on top of her water usage bill

According to a copy of Mann's bill reviewed by 13 Investigates, she was charged $169 for a month in which she used just 2,000 gallons. In July, the fees alone — base charges for water and sewage, pass-through fees and a state fee — totaled $150.18. Her actual water and sewage usage that billing cycle came to $9.34.

That means 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 dipped slightly to $138.58 but still well beyond what her budget could absorb. A City of Houston customer who used the same 2,000 gallons paid $57 total.

Mann said she could manage if her bill were closer to the roughly $60 a month she paid back in Cleveland.

Cost hikes spreading across the US

Mann's provider, 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 filed to tack on a $34-per-month "system improvement charge" to recoup more than $80 million in infrastructure spending.

The company is expanding. But the cost problem it represents is spreading nationwide.

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 from Bluefield Research found that the combined water and sewer bill for a typical American household jumped 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% of median household income.

And the industry is consolidating fast. In late 2025, American Water Works and Essential Utilities announced a $40 billion merger combining the country's two largest municipal water and wastewater companies (4). Food & Water Watch described the deal as a step toward 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 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 thinned. The Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program (LIHWAP), a pandemic-era federal program that helped over 1.5 million households cover 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 policy urgency as energy costs — and that fixed-income seniors are bearing a disproportionate share of the burden (8).

Texas Water Utilities’ response and where Mann is now

Texas Water Utilities told 13 Investigates that its customers don't pay separate municipal utility district (MUD) fees, so its monthly bill represents the full cost of service, with all rates approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas. The PUCT said investor-owned utilities must demonstrate why a rate increase is necessary, and the commission only approves increases it deems just 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's still hauling jugs. Still choosing between water and groceries.

"They're not regulating them. You're letting them do what they want to do, and people are complaining, but basically they're getting the same response that I'm getting," she said.

5 ways to push back on a bloated water bill

You can't fix a broken rate structure on your own, but you don't have to accept it quietly either.

1. Read your bill like a financial statement. Figure out 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 cutting your shower short won't change much. But knowing the breakdown tells you where to focus your fight.

2. Fix leaks before they fix your budget. The EPA estimates household leaks waste about 10,000 gallons per year (9). A running toilet alone can burn through hundreds of gallons a day. Quick test: drop food coloring in the tank, wait 10 minutes, and check the bowl.