The Texas Public Utility Commission recently agreed to intervene in a rate case filed with it by four North Texas cities against North Texas Municipal Water District in which the cities contend that the district water rate structure is unfair.

Garland, Mesquite, Plano and Richardson filed the PUC case in 2016 but had been directed by the PUC to work out their differences with the nine other district member cities, Allen, Farmersville, Forney, Frisco, McKinney, Princeton, Rockwall, Royse City and Wylie.

The four cities argue that the NTMWD take-or-pay method of billing for water consumption, a methodology agreed to by the member cities in 1988, has resulted in an overpayment of $275 million in recent years for unused water.

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By Joe Reavis • [email protected]