SAN ANGELO, TX — The City of San Angelo says their Water Utilities Department is set to refund $284,138 to 25,031 water customers. They say those customers have accounts dating back to 2009 and did not receive the discounts previously.
The City says the average amount owed to each customer is $11.35. They break it down further saying, “In total, 14,225 customers with active accounts are owed $197,557. Another 10,806 non-active account holders are owed $86,581.”
Customers who have an active account will be credited on their next bill. If you do not have an active account, you can search for your name here and get information on how to receive your refund.
The City says the discounts are calculated by gallons of water used in a household. If a customer used less than 3,000 gallons, they will receive a discount of $3.32 per month for each month they did not use over 3,00 gallons. The City says an error in the system caused the credits to not be added back toward their monthly bill.
“We apologize to our customers for this oversight and understand the frustrations this news will cause,” Water Utilities Director Allison Strube said. “We are doing and will do all we can to return what is rightfully theirs to our current and former customers. At the same time, we are taking measures to strengthen incentives to conserve water and to ensure this does not happen again.”
Customers recently notified the City about the error when they noticed they did not receive the credits on their bill. The City investigated and said there was an error in a handwritten computer code that determined who received the discounts. That code was created by a former employee in 2006.
“We encourage any customer who has questions about this to contact us,” Strube said. “We are trying to be as open and transparent about this as possible. Again, we apologize for this mishap and are willing to work overtime to make the customers who were impacted whole again financially.”
The City says they plan to present an ordinance that would reward customers who are actively conserving water to the City Council soon.
“Many of the customers who earn the discount currently are not actively seeking to do so,” Strube said. “They manage to earn the credit simply by circumstance, such as the case with a realtor briefly needing water service for an inspection or a single person living alone in a home. We want to create a robust conservation program that encourages our customers to actively take steps to save water.”
Again, the list can be found here--> http://www.cosatx.us/departments-services/water-conservation
