He noted that Spirit Lake charges just a $15 flat monthly fee per residence for water service, which covers 12,000 gallons of water, plus another $1.25 for each additional 1,000 gallons used.
If they weren't already over the limit, the extra water would be "free." Not that I think they should have any right to actually enforce it, but you can kinda see why they wouldn't want people using the flat fee portion of the water like that.