The article is incorrect about the water meters. I lived in Sacramento city limits for 6 years. We most definitely had metered water. In fact I had a friend,

The article is incorrect about the water meters. I lived in Sacramento city limits for 6 years. We most definitely had metered water. In fact I had a friend, also in sac city, who had a broken water pipe. It was underground and not visible. The bill for 1 month was over $3,000. It was metered. (Luckily, some grant program paid/reduced the bill)