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1. What do I do if I think my water bill is too high?

If you think your water bill is in error, the best course of action is to call Utility Billing or visit a customer service representative on the first floor of Allen City Hall. They will review your account history and your individual situation. The Utility Billing number is 214.509.4560. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

2. Does the City of Allen use “smart meters” and what is the difference?

The City of Allen does not have “smart water meters” on any residential water accounts. We use meters manufactured by Neptune and we have used these same type of meters for twenty years or more. Only about 10% of these meters have to be manually read by the meter readers, who input usage to a data recording device by hand. The other 90% of the meters have a lead wire from the register on top of the meter that connects to a touch-read pad on the top of the meter cover. The same meter base that Allen uses can be fitted with a smart meter register to allow remote reading. We do not have these smart meter registers installed on our meters. The smart meter registers transmit a very low-power RF signal to accomplish the remote reading function. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

3. How does the City read the meters in Allen?

For both types of meters used in Allen, a meter services technician goes by the home and reads the meter each month. For manually-read meters they read the meter face after they open the meter lid. On touch-read meters they just “touch” the pad on the top of the meter lid to get the current meter reading. While the touch-read system is electronic, it does not emit Radio Frequency (RF) transmissions. Once the meters are read, the information is downloaded into the City’s financial system. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

4. Does the City of Allen ever estimate or average customer consumption use?

In the past fifteen years, the City has not “estimated” meter readings due to bad weather or for any other reason. A meter services technician goes by every meter, every billing cycle. Due to the fact that we have to schedule people to physically go by and take meter readings, we cannot take readings on an exact 30-day interval. The only way to take readings instantaneously and attain a more even billing period would be to install “smart meters” which the City has not yet done. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

5. Does the City replace meters on a schedule? Or when they fail?

The City changes out residential water meters with new meters on a ten- to fifteen-year cycle. This is because meters run slow as they age; to assure accuracy of billings we have to change them out. When meters age, they typically run slow or stop running completely. If the City did not regularly replace the meters, we would need to test all residential meters as they age to ensure they were operating within standards. Any consistently failing meters are replaced. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

6. Will the City test my meter if I think it is not working correctly?

The City offers meter testing to residents at their request for a $20 charge. The City has tested residential meters upon request and has not found any that were running “fast.” We have found old meters that were running “slow,” or underreporting water usage. If the meter tests run too fast or high, we would refund the $20 and adjust the resident’s bill accordingly for high readings. We do not make any adjustment if the meter runs slow, which is to the customer’s advantage, but the meter will be replaced with a new one. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

7. Why does my water bill keep going up?

The City of Allen purchases water for its customers from the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD). NTMWD has increased water purchase rates annually in response to rising operational costs, EPA water mandates to improve treated water quality, invasive species infestations, and the need to increase water supply to meet the needs of our spiraling north Texas population. The City of Allen periodically conducts water and sewer rate studies to determine how our utility rates must be set to keep the Water and Sewer enterprise fund, used to purchase water, in sound financial condition. Many years ago, in order to encourage conservation practices, the City factored in a “tiered” rate structure that charges increasing costs as consumption increases. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

8. What is the current water rate structure?

The current water rate structure is divided into tiers and calculated per 1,000 gallons used in each tier.
Residential minimum bill, 5/8-inch meter,
includes the first 1,500 gallons of water $10.29
1,501 to 15,000 gallons $3.40 per 1,000 gallons
15,001 to 25,000 gallons $4.25 per 1,000 gallons
25,001 to 50,000 gallons $5.32 per 1,000 gallons
50,001 to 75,000 gallons $7.99 per 1,000 gallons
Over 75,000 gallons $11.98 per 1,000 gallons
Water use is charged per tier. For example – if you use 20,000 gallons, the first 1,500 will cost $10.29. The next 13,500 is charged at $3.40 per 1,000 gallons which equals $45.90. The final 5,000 gallons fall in the next tier of $4.25 per 1,000 gallons which equals $21.25. The total water cost for 20,000 gallons would be $77.44. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

9. What happens after the water meters are read?

After meters are read, the consumption data is downloaded into the City’s financial system. Before billing, a report is run to identify accounts with higher than historical usage in the last 12-month period as well as accounts with extremely low usage. The meter readings are verified for the high and low use accounts. Additionally, the meter technicians look to see if the leak detector is turning on the meter face when they do these re-reads to get some indication if a leak might be causing the high consumption. Any erroneous meter readings are corrected prior to billing. We notify customers whose meters showed the possibility of a leak so they can schedule an appointment with City staff to re-check the leak detector when they are home to assure all water use is turned off. Leaks can seriously increase water use. It is the customers’ responsibility to decide how they are going to address potential leaks. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

10. Are there ever any “reading errors”?

On some occasions, there is the possibility for error. Errors are typically found on manually-read routes where a number may be input incorrectly. For example, incorrectly inputting 100,000 gallons as 1,000,000 gallons in a hand-held device can change the bill drastically. Again, only around 10% of Allen utility customers have meters that require a manual input. Extremely low usage accounts may be vacant homes that are up for sale or re-leasing, but are also found serving homes with meters that have failed. These meters are “frozen” and replaced. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

11. Is there a way to tell exactly where my water usage comes from?

The City of Allen currently does not have any residential customers with smart meter technology capable of pinpointing precise usage. However, the City can offer historical insight into a customer’s past usage because our records show monthly usage dating back many years. For newer customers, we can show them the usage of an anonymous neighbor for comparison purposes. Subject to the previous owner’s account confidentiality, new customers in an existing home can view the consumption pattern of the past residents. Many times, seeing the usage in their own home or neighborhood assures customers that their current consumption is not unusual. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill

12. What is “budget billing” and is it available for City of Allen Utility Bills?

Average utility billing or “budget billing” is a way to spread out the cost of high seasonal usage for utilities such as electric, natural gas, and water across an entire year. The City of Allen offers a payment option that allows residential customers to pay the same amount for their City utility bill each month over an eleven-month period with the twelfth month as “settle-up.” Settle-up is a way to make your payments equal to the actual amount that would have been billed over the past twelve months. Your budget bill amount per month is calculated based on your individual consumption over the previous 12 months, and assumes future use will be similar. Each budget billing customer will continue to be mailed a monthly City utility bill with the average amount reflected as the payment due. The budget bill amount is withdrawn from your checking or savings account twenty days after the bill date. Customers that sign up are enrolled in budget billing annually for the period from October 1st through September 30th of the next year. This period parallels the City’s Fiscal Year. Residents receive information annually about budget billing in a flyer that is inside their regular August utility bill. The flyer also provides the information needed to sign yourself for bank drafting. Once you are enrolled in budget billing, the enrollment continues automatically through the years until you elect to stop it or the City stops it due to the payment source failing to operate properly. For established customers with good payment history who prefer to spread their potentially higher summer water costs out more evenly and are willing to set up a direct debit payment option, budget billing may be a good choice. Customers may get further budget billing information from the City’s utility billing office at 214.509.4560.
Understanding Your Utility Bill

13. What is being planned for future growth and development to prevent water shortages?

Allen’s water supplier, the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), provides water to over 1.6 million residents in the north Dallas area. With a population of about 100,000, Allen makes up about 1/16th of those customers. The population in our area is booming and making greater and greater demands on our water supplies. Water costs are increasing at a steeper rate than anyone could desire. In fact, from 2014 to 2020, our wholesale water costs are rising by an average of 10% per year. These rising costs are passed along to customers as periodic rate increases. NTMWD recently invested $125 million to provide greater water quality by improved disinfection processes (ozonation). When a zebra mussel infestation affected Lake Texoma, 25% of the NTMWD water supply was shut off in the middle of a drought. In order to regain use of this water, NTMWD built at $310 million pipeline. Looking towards the future, NTMWD is building a new reservoir, treatment plants, and water distribution lines. These represent a $1.2 billion dollar investment. Combined with increased water conservation, these ongoing efforts should serve the region’s needs for 30+ years. This new water development is essential to meet the future needs of current and future residents of the region. As new water supplies are developed, they are typically from locations further away from the DFW Metroplex, thus have greater costs for construction and operation than existing supplies. The cost of these projects are paid-out over long term bond issues that in effect help spread the costs forward to include future residents. Understanding Your City of Allen Utility Bill