When water bills rival car payments: $500 sticker shock in rural North Texas

When Jana McGuire moved into a new development near Springtown four years ago, she never imagined paying water bills of over $500 a month.

McGuire and her husband, Kendall, who are nearing retirement age, routinely have bills in that range, and they are gone around two weeks a month to work in the Permian Basin in the oil and gas industry.

“I don’t know how I would live in my house full-time ...” Jana McGuire said. “When I bought my house, I was single. I almost sold it because I couldn’t afford it. Don’t flush the toilet every time. Don’t take a bath every day. My water bill was just as much as my vehicle payment.”

The McGuires’ situation illustrates what people often find when they move to rural areas with fewer people, where water rates are higher than in bigger cities as utilities add new lines to keep up with the growth. Bills can skyrocket when homeowners water their big yards.

The McGuires’ home sits on 1 acre in the Spring Creek Farms development in Wise County, a stone’s throw from the Parker County line. They get their water from the Walnut Creek Special Utility District , which serves a 500-square-mile area with around 33,000 customers in Wise and Parker counties.

James Blackwood, general manager of the Walnut Creek SUD, said newcomers often don’t take into account that their water bills will be higher when they move from a quarter-acre lot to one that’s 2 acres.

Rhome Mayor Kenny Crenshaw said he gets calls from residents about high water bills. Rhome purchases its water from Walnut Creek.

Crenshaw had his own experience with high bills when he moved to the city in 2009. After getting a $400 bill, Crenshaw said he stopped watering his grass, and now, his bills are around $100 a month.

He said Rhome is considering a rate increase to keep pace with maintenance and other costs, and the city is looking at ways to increase rates without too much of an impact on senior citizens and others on fixed incomes, he said.

“I think every community in North Texas is facing this situation,” he said.

Walnut Creek increased its rates on Oct. 1, the first time in seven years. A study by the Texas Rural Water Association determined that Walnut Creek was “falling behind,” Blackwood said.

Blackwood said the utility district is catching up with the rapid growth. During 2021 and 2022, growth was predicted to increase by around 12% in Parker and Wise counties, but Walnut Creek experienced a 36% increase during that time, he said. The growth has slowed some in 2023 and 2024, he said.

But the growth “hit the district hard.”

The district is upgrading waterlines and adding storage from a $40 million bond passed in 2023, which will help keep pace with the demand, Blackwood said.

The water plant can produce as much as 14 million gallons per day, and when expansions are finished next year, the rating will go up to 16 million gallons.

However, the pumps and waterlines are not capable of carrying that amount of water. Blackwood added that the Tarrant Regional Water District limits Walnut Creek how much it can pull from Lake Bridgeport. Walnut Creek stays within the allotted amount as long as irrigation is under control.

Blackwood said water use has increased as much as 30 million gallons a month during peak irrigation months.

Walnut Creek is working with Rhome, New Fairview, Decatur and other cities to create the Wise Regional Water District to address the growing demand for water. The Texas Legislature will have to create the district.

Ongoing growth

Jason Knobloch, deputy executive director of the Texas Rural Water Association , said concerns are focusing on adding “infrastructure” and more water sources because of the population growth. He said he is encouraged that the Legislature is paying attention and that $1 billion in funding was allocated for water needs.

“We see a lot of our people moving from the city to the country. We haven’t seen growth in the rural areas for a long time, but it’s picking up quickly,” Nobloch said.

Some of the utilities that are members of the Texas Rural Water Association are adding 1,500 water connections a year. COVID “dramatically” changed how much it costs to install water systems, he said.

“Some of our members say that costs have tripled to get a pipeline in the ground,” he said.

Complaints about high bills

When McGuire contacted Walnut Creek about her water bills, she said she was told that she probably had a leak and that she would have to get it repaired.

The McGuires diligently check the water meter and say that the readings don’t match the high bills.

Jane Galvin and her husband live in Bittersweet Springs near Springtown.

They were surprised by the high water bills after they moved to the area in 2022.

Galvan said her September bill was $560. She hand-waters her yard, which has 60 trees.

“If my husband and I didn’t love our home so much, we would put it up for sale,” she said. “We’ve never had such an issue in Texas.”

Galvin said she doesn’t want her property value to be “destroyed.”

Four years ago, Robin Kidd moved from Fort Worth to the small community of Agnes near Springtown. She was used to water bills in the $30 to $40 range, but they skyrocketed to over $300 a month after the move.

Kidd was also told that she likely had a water leak and needed to get it repaired.

Kidd was so frustrated that she started a private Facebook group for customers to share their concerns.

“Low and behold, it opened up a can of worms,” she said.

When asked about the complaints, Blackwood said customers are asked to check for leaks. At the customer’s request, the company will send someone to re-read the meter, and customers are charged a fee if the reading is correct. If the reading is not accurate, the district corrects the reading and the customer receives a new bill, Blackwood said.

Walnut Creek can also get a “data log” that shows how much water flowed through the meter hourly during the billing cycle.

If customers aren’t satisfied with the results, the meters can be sent for testing, and if the reading is accurate, customers would pay the testing fee plus the bill, he said.

The McGuires and other customers worry about how they will keep paying the high water bills.

They water the yard just enough to keep it alive, and they are concerned about their trees, as some are dying.

Jana McGuire hopes she and her husband can afford to stay in their home when it comes time to retire.

She also wonders how her younger neighbors with families will afford the high water bills.

‘I am an older, established person. What would a younger person do?” she said.

Conservation is necessary, and Crenshaw, the Rhome mayor, said the state needs to address that issue.

“The main problem is that we have so many straws stuck in our ground and people think they have their own private well. But they’re taking water from the same source,” he said.