The following message is from Jeffrey L. McIntyre, president of Texas Utilities at SouthWest Water Company:
Two weeks ago, Texas endured the biggest statewide weather event in recent memory—and we know that many are still dealing with the fallout from the power outages and water shortages. As SouthWest Water Company and our subsidiary utilities here in our home state continue to assess and prepare for the future, we want our customers across Texas to know what they can expect as we seek to offer extraordinary relief for an extraordinary crisis. With no action or documentation needed from our customers, we are:
- Offering prorated daily credits for any system wide service disruptions longer than 24 hours (rounding up to the whole day);
- Adjusting billed usage to make sure customers are not charged for leaks/drips by charging the lesser of January or February usage; and
- Setting winter average usage rates for wastewater customers that excludes February usage.
We will work with the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates and sets our rates, and are subject to any rules or regulations they enact in response to the storm event. However, we believe this is an opportunity to do right by our customers and are taking these actions to help ease the financial burden.
We believe that a fundamental Texas value is to treat our neighbors like family. That is why we are going well beyond what is required to do on our part to help fellow Texans get back on their feet. We want to extend our appreciation to every customer, partner, community group and employee for their tireless work to come together to take care of one another. When an extraordinary event like this comes along, we cannot anticipate every scenario or third-party factor, but we know we can count on Texans.