Mayor Cole said rising water bills stem from major utility capital projects and operating costs, stressing those expenses are paid from the city’s water and sewer enterprise, not property taxes. “It is surface water treatment plant. It's 10,000,000 gallons a day. That plant was $175,000,000,” he said, adding that a wastewater expansion of roughly $75,000,000 is nearly complete. Combined with other projects he cited, “that's $250,000,000 in your system,” Cole said.

Why that matters now: the mayor said Pearland has been a high‑growth city for 20–25 years and has had to expand treatment and collection capacity to meet regulatory thresholds from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. He pointed to an older plant in the floodway as an example of a costly, flood‑prone facility the city is replacing and cited a neighboring jurisdiction’s federal fine — offered as an example — to underscore enforcement risk.

Cole also described a meter‑replacement program that enables the Pearland Water customer portal. “It's the Pearland Water customer portal,” he said, recommending customers sign up to view near‑real‑time daily and hourly usage and set alerts. The mayor said about 40,000 new “smart” meters were installed in a project the transcript described as roughly $13–$15 million. He said the city typically finances major utility work through bonds and low‑cost loans (he cited the Texas Water Development Board at about 0.5%) to spread costs over time rather than funding projects with a single cash outlay.

On unexpected high bills, Cole described the city’s troubleshooting: staff pull meter profiles (hour‑by‑hour usage) to spot continuous flows (a sign of leaks), test or swap meters, and offer leak adjustments or high‑volume discounts when appropriate. He urged residents with unexplained spikes to email the city so staff can investigate. “We pull, their meter profile, and it profiles hour by hour the usage,” Cole said, describing how the portal flags continuous usage as a potential leak.

The mayor noted the council approved a 7% utility rate increase earlier in the year that would start appearing on November bills; the city uses a tiered rate structure to encourage conservation and to allocate costs among meter sizes, he added. Cole said business‑class meters carry higher rates and that larger commercial meters effectively subsidize residential rates under the current rate design.

What residents should do next: sign up for the Pearland Water portal to monitor usage, contact city customer service with specific meter/account details if a bill looks wrong, and provide an email address so the mayor’s office and staff can pull profiles and, if warranted, apply adjustments. The mayor said most resolved complaints are fixed within days after staff intervention.

The city did not provide a detailed line‑item ROI for the surface‑plant project during the livestream; financing, regulatory compliance and continued service capacity were presented as the core rationales for the upgrades.

What happens next: the city continues to finalize wastewater expansion work and to operate the new surface‑water plant; residents will see the effects in monthly bills and are encouraged to consult the budget and rate‑model materials posted on the city website for full rate schedules and projections.