Your bill doubled. Is it the pool?

Brazosport Water Authority supplies the treated water most Lake Jackson, Clute, and Angleton households use, drawn from the Brazos River through the Harris and Brazoria reservoirs. A bill that jumps from a typical range to two or three times normal in one cycle is usually one of a handful of things, and the pool is only one of them. We've seen bills go from around $60 to $300 in a single billing period, and the cause split roughly between a stuck autofill valve, an actual shell or plumbing leak, and something entirely on the house side.

Guessing wastes money in both directions. Some homeowners pay for a full leak diagnostic on a pool that's fine while a running toilet or irrigation valve is the real culprit. Others assume it's "just the water company" and let an actual leak run for months. We audit the pool side specifically and tell you which bucket your bill jump falls into.

How the audit works

1. Pull the bill history

   We ask for your last two or three statements to find exactly which cycle the jump started in and how large it was, which narrows down what changed around that time.

2. Check the autofill

   A stuck-open autofill valve or a failed water-level sensor is one of the most common causes of a bill spike that has nothing to do with a shell or plumbing leak. We check the float, the valve seat, and the fill line first.

3. Isolate the meter

   With house fixtures and irrigation shut off, we watch the meter to see if it's still moving. If it creeps with everything off except the pool circuit, the pool or its equipment pad is a strong suspect.

4. Bucket test the pool

   Same method as our standard leak detection: compare the pool's own water loss against a marked bucket sitting in it, to separate normal evaporation from actual water loss.

5. Pressure and dye test, if warranted

   If the audit points to the pool itself, we move straight into the full pressure and dye process, and the $195 audit fee applies toward that diagnostic.

6. Show you the math

   You get a written breakdown of usage, evaporation estimate, and where the excess water is most likely going, whether that's the pool or somewhere else on the property.

What actually causes this?

• Autofill valve stuck open. The single most common cause we find. A worn float or debris in the valve seat lets fresh water run into the pool continuously, which looks exactly like a leak on your bill but isn't a crack or plumbing failure at all.
• Irrigation on the same meter. Sprinkler systems on many older Lake Jackson properties share the house meter, and a stuck zone valve or a broken head can rack up usage that gets blamed on the pool by default.
• House-side leaks. A running toilet flapper or a slow slab leak inside the house can produce the same bill jump with the pool completely healthy.
• Billing cycle estimates. Water utilities occasionally estimate a reading rather than capture an actual meter read, which can create a temporary spike that corrects itself the next cycle. Worth ruling out before any repair spending.
• Real pool loss hidden by evaporation season. Peak summer evaporation is already high on the Gulf Coast, so a real leak on top of normal seasonal loss can be harder to isolate by eye alone, which is exactly what the bucket test is for.

Questions homeowners ask