Have you looked at your water bill this month? You might have been overcharged

UPDATE (04/07): El Paso Water announced some customers were inadvertently overcharged for environmental service charges and stormwater fees.

El Paso Water said they are working to correct the situation, and the affected customers will see a credit on a future bill in the next two to six weeks.

Disconnections for non-payment are temporarily suspended as customers transition to using the utility's new customer information system.

“We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience,” President and CEO John Balliew said. “Please bear with us as we deal with the challenges of being understaffed. We encourage our customers to email us at customer.service@epwater.org or visit our new My Account at epwater.org that offers multiple self-service options in English and Spanish.”

EL PASO, Texas -- Necessities like water and environmental services are rising at staggering price percentages.

When you get your bill from El Paso Water, there are two sections. On one side, it's your El Paso Water charges; on the other, it's your Environmental Services charges. While they are both detailing different charges, they have both risen drastically.

When we look at the water side, your March bill would have looked pretty steep. There are two reasons for that - El Paso Water had to implement a new customer information system, and to do that, they shortened February by a week and tacked it onto March.

But that's not the only reason your bill was bigger - at the start of March El Paso Water increased their rates. Water went up by 9%, wastewater by 13% and stormwater by 9%. For many, that meant they paid more in March for less water usage than what they did in February.

But why the increase? Arturo Duran, the CFO for El Paso Water, told ABC-7 that, in part, it's due to natural increases in their operating expenses like all businesses have, but he says most of it is a result of their capital improvement program.

“We need to make sure we provide to our customers reliable service and this comes at a cost because we need to make improvements for the infrastructure," Duran said.

When we look at the bill specifically there are several different things you're being charged for.

First and foremost, your usage which includes a 'minimum charge' which is 2990 gallons. Once you exceed that, there are different blocks - the more you use water, the more you will be paying.

There is also a franchise fee. This is from the City of El Paso, for the use of utility vehicles in their streets and driveways. 

Then you add on the wastewater fee, which is for the treatment of all the wastewater you produce in your house.

Another charge is the storm water fee which is to fund the operations and infrastructure for storm water.

On the bill is also Environmental Services. These fees have also gone up.

A grey trash bin is now $22.80 compared to $19, your environmental fee is $6 instead of $5, and the franchise fee is up from $6 to $7.20 when you add on the sales tax. That's a difference of $6.40 a month which is a 20% increase.

ABC-7 has reached out to the ESD as to why their prices have gone up, and we are working to get an answer.