{"id":419037,"date":"2026-08-28T07:50:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/419037\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T07:50:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T07:50:11","slug":"about-15k-water-customers-collectively-owe-30m-service-will-soon-be-cut-off-city-of-houston-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/419037\/","title":{"rendered":"About 15k water customers collectively owe $30M, service will soon be cut off, City of Houston says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The City of Houston is dropping the hammer on water customers who owe the city some cash.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Mayor John Whitmire announced on Thursday that, after two years of &#8220;significant leeway&#8221; following <a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc13.com\/post\/high-water-bill-city-of-houston-public-works-bills-in-ordinances\/14142039\/?userab=kfsn_content_recs-582*variant_b_trending_kfsn-2513%2Ckabc_content_recs-577*variant_c_trending-2482%2Cwls_content_recs-584*variant_b_trending_wls-2517%2Cwtvd_content_recs-585*variant_a_control_wtvd-2518%2Cktrk_content_recs-587*variant_b_trending_ktrk-2523%2Cwpvi_content_recs-586*variant_a_control_wpvi-2520%2Cotv_web_content_rec-539*variant_c_trending-2268%2Cotv_web_topic-580*variant_b_topic_redesign-2509%2Cotv_search_page_design_unification-546*variant_b_search_redesign-2300%2Cvertical_video_web-519*enabled-2164%2Cabcn_popular_reads_exp_followup-648*variant_c_autotagswpopularity-3458%2Cotv_mobile_web_content_recs-639*variant_b_mobile_content_recs_enabled-3431%2Ckgo_content_recs-583*variant_a_control_kgo-2514%2Cotvlink_abcnnav-576*variant_a_control-2478\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">inaccurate water billing incidents<\/a>, the city will soon begin shutting off water to users with unpaid balances.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Whitmire said approximately 15,000 customers who have not paid their bills in 90 days, have an outstanding balance of over $500, and have remote water meter sensors all collectively owe the city $30 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Since the water billing mishap several years ago, Whitmire said the city has replaced faulty meters, corrected billing problems, and &#8220;worked to restore confidence that customers are being billed accurately.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;This effort is about maintaining a fair and sustainable utility system and, just as importantly, being fair to the Houstonians who pay their bills on time,&#8221; Whitmire said in a statement. &#8220;Customers who are delinquent will receive clear notice and an opportunity to address their past-due balances before service is disconnected.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">The city said it is providing payment plans and information about assistance to customers who could see their taps run dry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC eTIW sUzSN \">The city added that customers with questions about their account, payment arrangements, available assistance, or disputes should call 713-371-1400.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KTRK-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) &#8212; The City of Houston is dropping the hammer on water customers who owe the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[145983,56,58,57],"class_list":["post-419037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-145983","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}