MARFA — After a City Council member alleged water meter issues and the departure of former City Manager Andrea Walter were linked, city officials have vowed to address an extensive list of meters that are designated as zero-read — meaning that they do not record consumption for a variety of reasons.
Councilmember Travis Acreman wrote a letter to the editor in the April 24 Big Bend Sentinel stating Walter was terminated for being a “whistle blower” for bringing to light inaction on a long-known list of zero-read meters.
As is common in most cities, many residents questioned the accuracy of their usage readings, and thus, their bills, Acreman said in a later follow-up call, with some constituents even raising questions about some Marfa residents getting free water. “I’ve had people from the community come to me in the past, before this came to light, saying that they had suspicions about the bills they were receiving, [they] weren’t tracking, they were irregular, unpredictable, in ways that didn’t make sense,” Acreman said.
Utilities Director Chuck Salgado acknowledged the ongoing problem in an April 24 council meeting but denied bias, stating that the city treats all utilities customers the same. In a May 1 letter to the editor, Mayor Manny Baeza said that “Walter’s separation was a joint decision between her and the city council,” which was backed up by the other council members, though she was technically fired and did not resign.
Last Thursday, The Sentinel obtained a copy of the zero-read meter list from the city, which shows 260 utility accounts — about 10% of the 2,000-plus residential and commercial utility accounts — with zero-read meters so far in 2025. The list dates back to 2020, with around 200 to 250 accounts listed each year.
City Secretary Kelly Perez and Salgado, in a phone interview Tuesday, went into greater detail about the issue and pledged that the city will work to define why residences and businesses were on the list.
Perez said the obstacle to determining why meters are zero-read is a lack of information in the utility records. She said officials are working to note the reason for zero-reads so that the list can be informative instead of igniting controversy.
The list The Sentinel received was redacted to only show the names of commercial properties since state law mandates that residential users’ utility records, the vast majority on the list, are not public. However, The Sentinel used another source to reveal those names, which will not be published to protect their privacy under law.
A review of the records and phone calls to account holders revealed several reasons for the zero-reads. One explanation became clear — houses using private wells for water. These residents, and possibly commercial users, maintain a utility account and are billed the standard service fee of $17.64 for using less than 2,000 gallons per month. Since no water is flowing through the meters, they read zero usage. “We’ve historically gone off of how the water department just knows whose house is whose and who has a well and who doesn’t. … They could tell you right off the top of their head, ‘Oh, this one has a well,’” Perez said.
Perez and Salgado also walked through other possible causes for a meter appearing on the list: multiple meters at one site with only one used; broken meters not recording usage; or buried and inaccessible meters.
Two residents that appeared on the list told The Sentinel they are certain that they are using more than 2,000 gallons per month and don’t have wells — leaving them wondering if their meters are broken or whether they aren’t being read each month. Salgado said the city is not currently using averaging, a method used in the past in Marfa when meters are not accessible for some reason and customers were billed on their history of past usage. (Some cities in the state use this method but still eventually get readings to correct any billing errors.)
Perez said that even with all the explanations offered for zero-read meters, there are still customers on the list who are using city water but only paying the minimum and getting free water if they use over 2,000 gallons. She said the city will eventually categorize which meters are truly broken and which just aren’t accessible, and customers with zero-read meters should be prepared for their bills to increase when they are billed for the actual water they use, not just the minimum charge.
Perez and Salgado noted an issue with the zero-read list — it still shows meters that have actually already been repaired. Some of the residences and businesses were listed every year from 2020 to date. Others, however, only showed up for a year or two, indicating those meters may have been fixed.
An answer to the problem is smart meters, which record water usage and transmit it back to the city with no human readers needed. City officials have expressed enthusiasm for the idea in the past, but with a price tag of $800,000 for a total overhaul of all meters, they have not moved forward with any purchases. But it is unclear why at least some smart meters were not explicitly budgeted for this year if the mayor and city staff were aware of the lengthy dead meter list. The City of Alpine recently approved a pilot project for 50 smart meters to evaluate their effectiveness and possible enhanced revenue.
At Tuesday’s City Council meeting, the mayor spoke on related issues. Baeza said during his mayor’s report that he met with accountants, and the city will be moving forward with new policies and procedures regarding when meters are read and when bills are sent. “We are going to have a timeline of, okay, you have to have their meters read by this day, bills have to go out by this day,” he said. Accountants will come in June to train city staff on the procedures.
Salgado said even standard meters are expensive, often hard to obtain on the market and take resources to install — all of which also leads to more meters being on the zero-read list.
Baeza told the council that the city received 24 new meters last week, which should be installed by the end of this week. “I’m going to speak with Chuck and see how many more we can purchase and have changed out, so we can get a hold of these meters that are no longer working or buried that they need to find,” he said.