During the 2020 Association of Water Board Directors (AWBD) Virtual Summer Conference, the West Harris County Regional Water Authority (WHCRWA) presented a video titled “Why Is My Water Bill So High?” that covers some of the requirements of conservation projects, the dangers of subsidence, and how RWA fees are applied.
You can find this video and others related to the WHCRWA on their website by following this link: https://www.whcrwa.com/videos/.
As an overview, the WHCRWA fee that appears on residents’ water bills is charged for water pumped by the utility districts (well pumpage fee) and for surface water (surface water fee) provided to them by the WHCRWA. The utility districts in turn charge their individual customers for the water they use, and sometimes modify the fee charged them by the WHCRWA as pass through cost on the retail water bill to cover such things as leaks in their system, and fire hydrant use.
The WHCRWA uses the fees collected to fund its capital, operations/maintenance and debt service budgets. The vast majority of budgetary allocations go toward debt service, buying surface water, and paying for the system needed to deliver surface water from City of Houston-owned drinking water sources to the MUDs within WHCRWA’s boundaries.
For more information on the WHCRWA, please navigate to their website: https://www.whcrwa.com/ .