Update: The Town of Flower Mound told Guthmiller Friday that their meter reader reported a leak in her water line between where the meter connects and the inside of her house.
According to Guthmiller, she was present with the technician when he got down on his knees to look at her meter, which appeared to be working as though the water was running in her house. At the time, Guthmiller was running her dishwasher.
So the meter running made sense, and the technician never told her there was a leak, she said.
The town agreed to freeze Guthmiller’s water bill so she won’t incur late fees, and she will just pay the same amount as she paid last month. She will have to get a data logger from the town to see how much water is actually coming up from the water line to the point of the meter. She’ll get one from the town, but is not sure when b/c the line for the loggers is long.
If Guthmiller has a leak inside her house, it would be up to her to have a professional come in and fix it.
“What if they come back in September and October with a $2,000 bill,”she said. “What’s to stop them from charging everyone a $2- to $3,000 dollar bill?”
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When Debbie Guthmiller got her water bill this month, she was expecting something along the lines of what she’s used to seeing during the dry summer months.
Instead, she got a bill for a whopping $1,380.94. That’s $1,210 more than her bill last month, which came in at $170.
But what could one Flower Mound household do to rack up such a crush of charges in one month? Well, her water bill tells Guthmiller that she used 228,000 gallons of water. Yes, you read that right.
“There’s no leak, they just don’t know what to tell me, just that it’s coming into this house,” Guthmiller said after having her water meter inspected Tuesday afternoon.
Guthmiller’s house is in Pecan Acres and backs up to Bridlewood subdivision where others have seen high bills also recently.
All of her bills for the past year seem pretty much in line with her July bill. Last August, her bill was $360, and Guthmiller said she wouldn’t have been surprised if her bill this year was around that amount, because their water use habits have not changed.
Many other town residents have complained that their water bills are sky high and shouldn’t be.
“It’s absurd and it’s an obvious problem and they’re not even willing to work on it,” she said Tuesday evening.
On Friday, the town’s utility billing department told Guthmiller that a report coming from a technician who investigated her situation would tell the town if they need to put a “data logger” on her meter. That report is expected later today.
“They can’t promise anything until they get the report,” Guthmiller said. “They can’t explain where all that water went.”
The town also told her they may have to see if there’s a leak somewhere underground causing the problem.
Guthmiller’s 2900-square-foot house has three people living in it, and although they have a pool, it’s not set to auto fill if the water level drops. They have also found no pool leak, she said.
On her property, Guthmiller uses sprinklers to water but only sets them selectively throughout the day. She mostly hand waters.
“We live on a larger lot and we’re actually losing plants because we haven’t watered,” she said.
For now, Guthmiller is stuck with a hefty bill that she’s afraid not to pay, just in case the water gets shut off. The town told her a data logger would help them see just how much water is actually flowing into her home — including water used outdoors — but that would only help going forward.
She has the highest water bill so far in Flower Mound, out of the residents who have inquired with the town.
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