Many San Jose Water customers are mad. So mad, in fact, that a Saratoga customer has started a petition on Change.org that alleges unreasonable rates and unfair water allocations. It’s a cry heard from many other Saratoga, Los Gatos and Monte Sereno residents who saw their bills skyrocket this summer.

San Jose Water customers are being asked to reduce consumption 20 percent from 2013 levels.

But the bill Los Gatos resident Rosemary Coates received in July is an example of what’s happening in 2016.

“I have lived in Los Gatos for over 25 years and never once paid a water bill over $300,” Coates said in an email. “So you can imagine my surprise when I opened my July 2016 bill for $1,192.51. I just knew there must be some mistake.”

Even water company spokesman John Tang admitted “that’s an unusual bill” and suggested Coates call customer service to look at her usage.

Coates said the water company sent a representative to her home to check for leaks and/or a broken meter and found nothing wrong.

“He told me, ‘Well, rates have gone up. You must have used more water than you think you did.’ I was dumbfounded,” Coates said.

Her story was repeated by more than a dozen residents, who emailed the Los Gatos Weekly-Times to say they’re being gouged.

Spokesman Tang, on the other hand, says the water company is doing what the California Public Utilities Commission–and Gov. Brown–allow.

“The plan we came up with has been in affect since June 2015. It’s been looked at by the CPUC three times and approved three times,” Tang said.

The program that’s now in force includes two rate hikes. An 8.6 percent hike took affect June 14, but since it’s retroactive to Jan. 1 Tang said it’s essentially an 11.6 percent hike. The three percent retroactive surcharge will go away on July 1, 2017.

Another rate increase took affect July 1 that Tang said is a 6.8 percent “pass through cost” from the Santa Clara Valley Water District because it raised the cost San Jose Water pays to buy H2O by 19.9 percent.

“Cumulatively, that’s almost 20 percent in rate hikes,” Tang said.

On top of that, San Jose Water levied a controversial drought surcharge against people who exceed their water allotments. But the way the allotments were determined is the subject of intense controversy. “We took an average of residential usage across the entire system,” Tang said. “We don’t know how many people are living behind the meter, but we believe the average household has four people. If you have more than four people, you can appeal and get two extra units of water per person.”

Los Gatos resident Ed Krick said, “This methodology is so simplistic and the outcome so obvious that it could have had only one objective, namely to generate as much penalty income as possible for the San Jose Water Company.”

Krick said his usage this summer “shot up several hundred percent” in excess of his allocation because he re-filled his swimming pool when the water evaporated. But he also has a dead lawn, and stressed trees and bushes.

Tang said, “Folks who have a lot of landscaping are going to have to bring their usage down quite a bit. The governor’s plan is about getting people who use the most to conserve the most.”

Los Gatos resident Lainey Richardson’s $1,000 water bill caused her to look at her meter. “My husband and I … tried to read the meter to see if it was moving when we had all the water faucets off. We couldn’t even read the meter due to dirt and mud,” Richardson said. “My husband had to clean the glass before we could read it.”

Tang said, “Most meters are manually read every two months.”

Technology may ultimately solve the meter reading/water billing problem as the water company moves away from old-fashioned meters to “smart” meters.

“We’re testing smart meters that can give folks real time information and alert them to usage issues,” Tang said. “People will be able to get down to a much more granular level.”

But smart meters are not without controversy either. Smart meter billing problems have been reported from Atlanta to Chicago and San Clemente.

San Jose Water customers are also upset that other water districts are reducing or eliminating drought surcharges. For example, the East Bay Municipal Utility District eliminated its drought surcharge on July 1.

The city of Brentwood eliminated drought surcharges on June 1 and Cal Water, which serves the city of San Mateo, eliminated the surcharges on July 29.

See the water usage petition at chn.ge/2dx1MVT.