Council discusses new water meters

The Rowlett City Council discussed the purchase of new water meters during its work session on Tuesday, June 19. The council budgeted for 1,476 meters to be purchased to replace inaccurate or nonfunctional meters in the fiscal year 2011 budget. The city has currently replaced 1,608 meters since the approval was given to purchase meters.

“Meters should be replaced or tested every ten to twelve years,” said Brian Funderburk, assistant city manager.

The city set a goal to replace all meters that were 10 years old or older. The replacement of the meters is necessary to mitigate the city’s losses from nonfunctioning meters. Funderburk said that each percentage point of loss by the city translated to approximately $160,000 in lost revenue for the city.

“Our losses were about nine percent from 2008 to 2009, and by 2010 had grown to about 12 percent,” Funderburk said.

He added that part of that loss could also be attributed to leaks and breaks.

The city’s contract with North Texas Municipal Water District states that when the loss gets around 12 percent the city needs to beginning replacing meters.

“We are just below that point,” Funderburk said. “As of 2011 we had about a 12 percent difference of the amount of water delivered and the amount of water sold or billed in Rowlett.”

In addition to the purchase of additional meters in 2011, the city contracted with a meter maintenance specialist to assist with the meter replacement program.

The city determined that based on the meters purchased and installed to date in fiscal year 2012, approximately 3,810 or 19.2 percent of the city’s water meters are more than 10 years old.

Another loss in revenue is attributed to non-reads. The city staff estimates there are more than 6.3 percent of the meters that non-read each month.

“We now have over 1,000 meters a month that are not read the first time we drive through,” Funderburk said.

A non-read occurs when the city’s radio read technology fails to obtain an initial consumption reading. Although a non-read by itself does not indicate that a meter must be replaced, the city staff has determined that the incidence of non-reads is higher for older meters which fail in favor of the customer.

The city council voted in favor of purchasing an additional 2,735 meters as part of the fiscal year 2012 budget .The city staff is propping the city council budget for the replacement of an additional 1,980 meters in its fiscal year 2013 budget.

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