Dear District E Residents,
Over these past few days, many of my constituents have asked why I "voted for a water rate increase". This increase was dictated by a consent decree between the City of Houston and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), dating back to 2010, many years before I became your Council Member.
The City had the following choices:
- Pay $7 billion to the EPA, or;
- Dedicate $2 billion to fix our water/wastewater infrastructure, or;
- Not pay anything and incur a $100,000 charge every day for every leak that discharges raw sewage into our lakes, canals, and tributaries, which are estimated to total over $1 million per day.
Ultimately, the City agreed to pay for improved infrastructure in our water/wastewater system in the amount of $2 billion. This investment is in lieu of paying a $7 billion fine issued to the City in 2013 by the EPA.
Last week, I joined eleven of my Houston City Council colleagues voting in support of water and wastewater rate increases. The measure passed 12 – 4 and will become effective September 1, 2021 (click here to view the meeting). The update in water and wastewater rates will pay for additional resources: to continue services, cover increased maintenance of infrastructure, reduce the number of water main breaks and sanitary sewer overflows, improve resilience against hurricanes, freezes and climate change. Furthermore, the new rates allow compliance with the Consent Decree, for the first time in over a decade, with federal regulations rather than pay penalties for violations caused by lack of investment.
The size of the city’s water and wastewater systems is huge. The City is responsible for providing safe drinking water to 4.2 million customers, operating and maintaining 3 regional water plants, 49 groundwater plants, and operating and maintaining 7,000 miles of water lines. The City is also responsible for providing customer service to 480,000 accounts (reading and maintaining meters) and responding to and recovering from natural disasters. The wastewater system's responsibilities include treating wastewater for 2 million customers, operating and maintaining 39 plants and 381 lift stations, maintaining 6,200 miles of gravity and force mains with 130,000 manholes, rehabilitating/replacing 155 miles of wastewater line, also providing customer service and responding to disasters.
Now for the timeline of how we got here:
In 2010, before I was elected to represent District E, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) identified issues related to the City of Houston’s water and wastewater systems. The city was continually discharging water (raw sewage) into the various lakes, rivers, canals, and tributaries in Houston. In 2013 the city received the first draft of a consent decree outlining fines of up to $7 billion in penalties due to the city’s continual discharges of wastewater into public streets, private property and waterways including Lake Houston. The City of Houston conducts a rate study every five years and in 2015, the last year of Mayor Anise Parker’s term, Mayor Parker and City Council at that time voted to not take any action, thus sending this problem to the next Mayor, Sylvester Turner.
In 2016, after years of kicking the can down the road, I accompanied newly elected Mayor Sylvester Turner, to Washington D.C. with a delegation of Houston City Council Members including Brenda Stardig (R), Jack Christie (R), and Larry Green (D) to meet with President Barack Obama’s Senior Advisor, Valerie Jarrett, to discuss the $7 billion in fines and penalties, identified by the EPA in 2013. That conversation kicked off a brutal three years of negotiations that came to a head in 2019 with the consent decree we have today which was approved on March 2021, by Judge Eskridge of the Southern District of Texas.
This consent decree negotiated by the City and the EPA is to address sanitary sewage overflows that occur throughout Houston each year. In lieu of $7 billion fines and penalties, the City agreed to invest $2 billion in fixing the City’s dilapidated water and wastewater infrastructure. The $2 billion infrastructure plan approved by a federal judge on April 2, 2021, includes 430 sewer system projects and will be paid by an increase in water bill rates based on the most recent rate study.
The consent decree has been a dark cloud hanging over the City for over a decade. Since the ruling has been issued, the City is required to spend $2 billion over the next 15 years to upgrade its sanitary sewer system, resulting in a reduction of possible $7 billion in penalties. If the City had not agreed to this consent decree, the City of Houston would have been fined $100,000 per day/per incident of sanitary sewer overflow, which is astronomical as several of these issues happen across the city daily.
The most recent rate study, June 2021, completed by an independent third party, Carollo Engineers, was used to determine rates necessary to fund our water system through 2026. The updated rates reflect the revenue needed to produce safe drinking water and process wastewater. These rates are not arbitrary, they reflect the actual cost to obtain, treat, and deliver water based on the customer. It is important to note, the City, by law, cannot charge customers more than the cost to operate and maintain the city’s water and wastewater systems. At the conclusion of the Council's discussion on this item, there were amendments added to the item. The one amendment that passed unanimously was to require the City to revisit the rate increase if the City of Houston is able to use potential federal infrastructure bill dollars to address some of our system’s needs.
Over the last several years, the City of Houston has been hit hard by natural disasters. At each turn, I’ve been on the frontlines fighting tooth and nail for every dollar to protect and fortify District E. One thing I have made sure to do while I am your Council Member is to make good decisions even if they are on the road less traveled. I could have easily voted against this item last week and it still would have passed. Voting against this item was not the right thing to do, that was the easy thing to do. I have encountered too many instances of raw sewage filling homes in Allendale, Edgebrook, Forest Cove, Kingwood, Huffman, and Northshore, to just do the easy thing. Raw sewage backing up into homes is a weekly occurrence not only in District E but the City of Houston as a whole. This must stop!
Some residents might ask, “why are we paying for the City’s mismanagement?” My answer is because that is what previously elected officials in Council did for you. They kicked the can and ignored the need, all to make the easy decision to leave this major neglect of infrastructure at someone else’s feet. They turned their back on you and instead of making the investment decades ago, they allowed our water and wastewater systems to deteriorate. How has their decision to do nothing served you? It’s put the City of Houston in the unfortunate position of being forced to comply with federal regulations the City of Houston has been in violation of for years.
The media has said this is a water bill increase. However, it is actually a utility bill increase. I say this because some single-family residential customers may see their bills go down on occasion as a result of these rate changes. Nearly 60% of single-family residential customers will have a $5 or less increase on their September bill. I offer you an example using my very own City of Houston water bill for my home in Kingwood which is 4,500 sq ft has 4 bedrooms, 4.5 bathrooms, a swimming pool, and a lawn irrigation system. My bill this September may change by less than $17.00. Like yours, my water bill varies from month to month, and this bill is my latest, dated May 30, 2021.
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To make projecting your new bill easier, the District E office has requested Houston Public Works to create a Water and Wastewater Rate calculator as a tool for residents to calculate their future water rates and prepare for when the updates go into effect. Once that tool is available to residents, I will make sure it is provided via our District E distribution list. To get on that distribution list you may email, DistrictE@houstontx.gov.
Thank you for taking the time to read my explanation of why I voted to support the water and wastewater rate updates.
*Due to the existing contract between the City of Houston and Clear Lake City Water Authority (CLCWA), residents who receive a utility bill from CLCWA are not affected by the water and wastewater rate change.
Sincerely,
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Below are two maps that show the number of reports the City of Houston has received between July 2019 and May 2021 related to Water System Issues and Sanitary Sewer Overflows. As illustrated, the City has far too many instances each and every day, and each incident results in a $100,000 fine every day this incident is not fixed.
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This map is a representation of all City of Houston water system service calls between July 2019 and May 2021.
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This map is a representation of all City of Houston Sanitary Sewer Overflows between July 2019 and May 2021.
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