originally the developers subsidized the water bills to entice buyers

There’s the bullshit right there. It was always stupid expensive to get water there, but the developers made it seem more reasonable and we can be pretty sure buried that detail deep in contracts. Shady sales tactic to obfuscate the eventual costs in order to offload assets that shouldn’t have been built in the first place.

Sure “buyer beware” and all, but I have more rage for the builder than the people that got duped and are now stretched beyond their budget.