A $637 water bill is enough to make any family rethink every shower, load of dishes, and sprinkler cycle.<\/p>\n
For one California homeowner, that kind of shock led to immediate cutbacks at home and served as a harsh reminder that summer water costs can climb far faster than many residents expect.<\/p>\n
What happened?<\/p>\n
According to 23ABC<\/a>, northeast Bakersfield homeowner Jennifer Herrera said her June water bill came to $637.03 after she noticed other residents online comparing their own bills.<\/p>\n To try to lower usage, Herrera told 23ABC that she and her children have kept showers to under five minutes for more than a month.<\/p>\n She said the total was much higher than what her household normally pays, including during the peak of summer.<\/p>\n “I was shocked,” said Herrera. “I’m hardly home during day, we’re out and about but I know my highest bill has always been $320 to $350 during the summer but never 600.”<\/p>\n She said the family inspected the home’s bathrooms and plumbing and watched the meter for any indication of a leak, but they did not identify an obvious problem.<\/p>\n California Water Service said the jump could be related to its tiered rate system, which bills basic use separately from higher, nonessential consumption.<\/p>\n Yvonne Kingman, California Water Service’s director of corporate communications, told 23ABC that customers reach the highest tier at 27 CCs, or more than 20,000 gallons in a month.<\/p>\n Why does it matter?<\/p>\n Outdoor watering can quickly push customers into more expensive pricing tiers. Even without a visible leak, irrigation habits, heat waves, and longer watering cycles can drive up use and cost.<\/p>\n In a drought-prone state, higher-than-expected use can strain both household budgets and local water supplies.<\/p>\n What can I do?<\/p>\n California Water Service is urging customers with unusually high bills to look for concealed leaks, keep a close eye on usage and their meters, and contact customer service for a detailed bill review.<\/p>\n Customers can also ask their utility about water-saving tools and resources.<\/p>\n Get TCD’s free newsletters<\/a> for easy tips, smart advice, and a chance to earn $5,000 toward home upgrades. To see more stories like this one, change your Google preferences here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A $637 water bill is enough to make any family rethink every shower, load of dishes, and sprinkler…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":397002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3653,7,9,8,50347,159511,159512,50795],"class_list":["post-397001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-bill","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-california-water-service","tag-jennifer-herrera","tag-northeast-bakersfield-homeowner","tag-water-bill"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=397001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/397001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/397002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=397001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=397001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=397001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}