TKC Must Read: Kansas City Water Billing Crisis Exposed

Sent to www.TonysKansasCity.com by very smart people . . .

THIS SCREED CALLS OUT BUSTED TECH USED BY KANSAS CITY FOR WATER BILLING!!! 

Check the premise that should generate a deluge of similar complaints and, hopefully, a flood of cash returned . . .  

KC Water’s Billing Crisis: What I Found—and What the Public Deserves to Know 

In December 2024, I received a water bill from KC Water showing 25,000 gallons used in six days. No leaks. Two licensed plumbers confirmed it. KC Water’s response? Blame the plumber. Then the next bill came—marked with an estimated usage warning, buried in fine print.

They already knew something was wrong. And instead of fixing it, they shut off my water—with a newborn in the house—and demanded a $300 payment without explanation. That’s when I stopped being a customer and started investigating.

What I found is not an isolated incident. It’s a systemic failure affecting thousands.

The Facts I Uncovered:
•KC Water is using faulty equipment  . . . These transmitters, which are supposed to last 20 years, are failing within months.
•Other cities are replacing them:
•Minneapolis is replacing 46,000
•Toronto is replacing 470,000
•Minneapolis alone has spent $2 million to protect its residents from billing fraud.
•Kansas City is still installing the same devices.
•No public acknowledgment.
•No plan for replacement.
•No freeze on billing when failures occur.

And it’s not like they weren’t warned. KC Water’s own 2018 internal audit flagged:

•Failing metering infrastructure
•No tracking for equipment lifespan
•SOP and training inconsistencies
•Total breakdown in escalation protocols

Six years later, nothing’s changed—except the number of residents now drowning in inaccurate bills and bureaucracy.

The Pattern is Clear:

I analyzed usage logs. I reviewed city policies. I spoke with other residents. I filed public records requests. And what emerged is a textbook case of transmitter failure:

•Months of ultra-low or zero usage
•Followed by massive, unexplained spikes
•No alerts, no investigation, no relief—just automated shutoffs and five-figure bills

This is happening over and over. The city’s system isn’t monitoring for red flags. No one is freezing billing when signals go dark. And worst of all, residents are being blamed and punished for equipment failure the city already knows is occurring.

This Is a Story About Priorities

Kansas City has proven it knows how to plan—airports, stadiums, downtown development. But when it comes to basic infrastructure, residents are treated like collateral damage.

While other cities staff up replacement crews, publish findings, and confront head-on, KC Water continues to deny, deflect, and shut off water to their citizens- blaming them.

I’m asking the media to do what the city won’t: shine a light on this.

What Needs to Be Reported:

1.KC Water is still using failed technology that other cities are actively replacing.
2.KC residents are being billed, shut off, and blamed based on faulty readings.
3.There is no system in place to flag or freeze billing during equipment failure.
4.Internal audits already identified this risk—and it was ignored.
5.Kansas City is the outlier—not for having transmitter failures, but for pretending they’re not happening.

The public needs to know that this isn’t a one-off mistake—it’s a policy failure that’s quietly hurting thousands. And it will keep happening until someone forces the city to act.

Kansas City officials have been warned. If they still refuse to fix it, they’re not just negligent—they’re complicit.
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