The city is currently transitioning its aging inventory of water meters to newer, more accurate, and more reliable meters supporting the most accurate billing for our water customers. We have experienced some challenges in this effort including technical issues translating meter readings to consumption and billing statements.

The city recently installed approximately 500 of the new, updated meters. Some customers identified significant increases in billed consumption for the August billing period relative to prior months. As a result, the city researched those accounts and tested a sample of the new meters to ensure they were measuring accurately. Contributing to the high consumption was the timeline for meter installation and reading those meters.

  • Meters were installed from June 10 through June 13. All new meters began with a “0” reading.
  • Meters were initially read on June 18. There was a delay in reading the new meters due to a software issue. An additional 5-8 days of consumption was reflected on the July reads.
  • Meters were subsequently read on July 23. The readings for the new meters were considered along with the final readings on the replaced meters to calculate customer consumption for the billing period.
  • More than 200 meters were not properly activated by the city’s contractor during installation and did not register properly with the July 23 readings. As a result, the city estimated consumption for July based on prior periods for purposes of billing. The city brought in a representative from the manufacturer to correct the problem.
  • When the 200 meters were properly activated and read for August, the readings were for a period of up to 71 days, which appeared high relative to a one-month reading period. Billings were adjusted to consider the estimated consumption for July.
  • There are still several customers who are identifying high consumption with the new meters.

Our testing of the meters indicates that they are functioning accurately and reading within industry standards. High consumption relative to prior months experienced by customers is likely a factor of a couple of things:

  • Older, replaced meters often read slowly/inaccurately, which was a key factor in the city’s decision to replace them, and
  • Customers may be using more water than they actually think as evidenced by the more accurate readings of the new meters.

We are happy to go through the last couple of months with individual customers and look at specific readings and charges to help those customers understand the billings they have received. If billings prove accurate, the city is also willing to work with those customers to mitigate the higher billing amounts with payment agreements to spread the impact over a period of time. For more information or to request a payment agreement please call the City’s Utility Billing office at 503.838.1212.