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Welcome

TAMER Mission Statement

Tamer is Dedicated to Fighting,

On Behalf of All Texans,

 Any Water/Sewer Service Providers

Whose Owners Charge Excessive Rates 

Recent News

5/27/2011  Monarch files For Rate Increase

On May 27, 2011, Monarch Utilities 1, L.P. filed a request with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) seeking an increase in your current water and sewer rates.

Additionally, Monarch Utilities recently files an application to consolidate eight( Diamond Water Company, Hormsby Bend Utility Company, Huntington Utility Company, Midway Water Utilities, Inc., Mid-Tex Utilities Inc., SW Utility Company, Water Services Inc., Windermere Utility Company Inc.) regulated water and sewer utilities into Monarch.

Monarch is asking for a rate increase of almost 55%

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Information Paper

Texans Against Monopolies’ Excessive Rates

(T.A.M.E.R.)

What About Water?

Are you satisfied with your water quality?  How about water costs?  Is there anything that you can do about it?  Is anyone fighting for better water quality and lower rates?   Before you get frustrated, there are some things you should know! 

Many Texans are dissatisfied with the life-essential water they purchase through water suppliers like Monarch water.  These companies form a class of privately owned businesses called Investor Owned Utilities or IOUs and are in the business of making profit for their investors.  Unfortunately the State of Texas has established IOUs as water monopolies.  Without adequate oversight and regulation, water prices rise and water quality drops.  As a Monarch customer, you pay 3 times the rate of the average Texas city.  How much is too much?

What can you do about it?  By yourself, relatively nothing.   Monarch is one of 8 water companies owned and operated by Southwest Water Company (SWWC) in Texas.   SWWC has water and sewer operations in 9 states serving over 1,000,000 homes.  100 homeowners represent about .01% of the customer base of SWWC.  As an individual or small group, you are virtually helpless.   

Since 1998, T.A.M.E.R., an all-volunteer, has been devoted to the interests of consumers (ratepayers) of water and sewer services provided by both investor owned utilities (IOU’s) and privately owned water companies. 

TAMER presently represent 58 subdivisions in 17 Texas counties with approximately 13 thousand ratepayers, both rural and municipal-- and we are growing!   We wanted to let you know about TAMER, that there ARE options, and TAMER is pursuing them!  

What has TAMER accomplished?  

•  In 2007 Monarch imposed, without a hearing, a whopping 43% rate increase on us. TAMER fought the rate hike and, after 16 months working with the Texas legislature to change the laws, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) to enforce oversight and the courts, negotiated a settlement with only a 26% rate hike 
•  Negotiated a 2-year “stay out” from further rate increases by Monarch  
•  In total, TAMER members received $521,850.00 in rebates and a savings of over $1.2 million in their yearly water bills in this one rate fight.   In addition, Monarch was prohibited from passing along to the consumer $450,000 in legal fees. 

How did this directly affect you?  

•  In June 2007 you were paying $50.45 for 5000 gallons of water.  Monarch’s rate hike the next month drove the cost to $70.72 for the same 5000 gallons. 
•  TAMER negotiated a settlement which resulted in your water bill being $61.33 and returned a $50 rebate to you as a TAMER member.  
•  Over the 2 year period of the Monarch settlement this resulted in money back in YOUR pocket.   Look at your water bills and figure your average usage.   Find your approximate savings in the table below:

But the work is far from done.  The 2-year “stay out” expires on January 1st, 2011 and Monarch is poised for a huge rate increase shortly after that.  Expensive water will become even more outrageous.  For investor-owned utility customers who have both water and sewer, T.A.M.E.R. is pledged to fight the same battles for affordable sewer it fights for affordable water, including fairness in rate setting and preventing rate case expenses from being passed to the customers.

Our goal has to be more than just holding rates in check—we must change the laws that allowed this to happen in the first place.  Did you know that rates can be raised and collected from you BEFORE they are approved?  Areas such as these are what TAMER addresses.  TAMER is now engaged with the Texas legislature to restructure the oversight of these water monopolies and return fiscal sanity and quality to life-essential water.  For more information, see our website at:

http://tamertx.bbnow.org/

We need your support to continue the fight for clean and affordable water for all Texans.  

You can help by contributing to the TAMER cause by writing a check to:

T.A.M.E.R.

P. O. Box 1590

Chandler, Texas 75758

Or going on-line and making a donation through the TAMER web site at:

http://tamertx.bbnow.org/

Would you like to help?  

Beyond money, TAMER needs volunteers to get out the water message.  Contact us at the above address or through the CONTACT US section of the TAMER web site 

We know there are people out there as frustrated with this situation as we are, and we want to find them.  We wanted to make you aware that THERE IS HOPE.  By yourself you feel helpless, but there is an entity fighting for you—and you have already been the beneficiary of their labor.  This was the reason we have contacted you.  You deserve to know what is going on and have the opportunity to join the fight. 

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Together we make a formidable force for Texas water.