SAN ANTONIO — Cathi Cohen makes a habit of conserving water. She’s lived in the same house since 2021 and her SAWS water bill averages between $40 and $70. Cohen says she rarely uses her sprinklers, though her yard is already small.
But then, in June of this year, Cohen’s SAWS water bill suddenly soared to $636. She was shocked.
“I thought, 'Oh my goodness! Do I have a leak? Did something break? What’s going on?'” Cohen said. “It has to be a mistake.”
Cohen normally uses around 3,000 gallons of water in a month. The June bill claimed she had used 41,000 in a single month.
Still, Cohen couldn’t find any evidence of a leak anywhere. She then called SAWS about the issue and SAWS gave her several steps to take to see if her toilets were leaking. When Cohen couldn't find any problems, she called SAWS back until the water utility finally sent a technician out to her home to re-read the meter in July.
“A gentleman came out. He was very nice, very helpful in trying to help me figure out why I would have a $600 bill. He said I would know if I had a leak because the triangle on my meter would spin consistently,” Cohen said.
Cohen said SAWS couldn't find an issue with the meter but decided to replace it with an updated meter anyway. When Cohen reached out to SAWS again two days later, she said a SAWS representative suggested they could monitor Cohen’s water usage for the next two months to see if it returned to normal.
“SAWS told me they were going to look at the three-month average before the spike and the three months after the spike to determine my usage.
Cohen's usage did return to normal levels the next month. Then, SAWS changed course and sent her a letter saying they would not adjust the bill.
Cohen called KENS 5.
"They are completely inconsistent in their messaging and their customer service," Cohen said. "No one is taking a second to step back and say 'this is really odd'".
KENS 5 contacted SAWS to find out if the utility does, in fact, have a policy to address unusual bills or not.
SAWS spokeswoman Ann Hayden told KENS 5 SAWS will adjust a bill in two situations. According to Hayden:
"SAWS will adjust a bill for two reasons: if there was an error on the bill or a leak was repaired. For leak adjustments, we require the customer to submit a leak adjustment request with repair receipts, if applicable. We will place the account on hold and review the usage for one to two billing cycles to ascertain that consumption has decreased. Once it is confirmed that usage has decreased, we will adjust the bill based on the type of leak repair."
Hayden also told KENS 5 SAWS will only adjust a customer bill once per year.
Cohen's situation fits neither category because there is no indication she has a leak and SAWS does not believe they made an error her bill. Still, because the bill was so unusual, Hayden said SAWS, "could offer a courtesy adjustment, which would be up to 25% of the excess usage."
Cohen said she's still frustrated as there is no way to tell where the extra water went.
"It's really disappointing," Cohen said. "To get such an astronomical bill and have no reason as to why."
Still, Cohen was able to get an answer on what the water utility's policy really is.