Agenda - Public Works Committee - 01/15/2008

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CASE # ~ WATER METER REPLACEMENT PROGRAM By: John Nelson, Utilities Supervisor Background: The City of Ramseybegan installing water meters in homes and businesses in early 1985. Most of these meters are still in service today. Like any other mechanical device, water meters have many moving parts. In time, there is wear and corrosion resulting in inaccurate readings or no consumption being recorded which results in revenue loss. The American Water Works Associationreports the industry standard is to replace meters every 10" 15 years depending on water quality. Our oldest meters have been in service for approximately 23 years. We have 680 meters that fall into the 15 year category and 1574 meters that fall into the 10 year category. The 2006 report shows 4.43 million gallons of water was unaccounted for; however, no utility can account for all water usage due to water main leaks, water theft,- and other activities. Currently the City of Ramsey has 3,702 water meters in service. All meters are "Neptune" brand and range in size from 5/8" to 4". We utilize two different systems to read our meters: 1. ARB 5 system utilizes a four strand copper wire from the meter to a remote reader box on the outside of the structure. This box has a series of wires and pins that define the account number and the meter reading. This teclmology is outdated and is 'nO longer used in new installations 2.ProRead system is very similar to the ARB system. It also requires a wire froin the meter tothe outside but the remote reader is a different style. Both systems are prone to disruption from siding work or other projects within the house that disturb the wiring system. Another issue with these systems is that a meter reader must have direct contact with each reading device and then manually transfer the data to another device to save it. In many cases human error has been discovered during this transfer. Snow, rain, fences, dogs, etc. make reading meters a very time consuming and expensive operation. Over the past two years we have responded to 324 homes where the meter reader could not get a reading due to one or more of the conditions listed above. Current water meter technology includes radio read, and fixed network radio systems. Radio Read The radio read system makes it possible to get meter readings while driving down the street in a vehicle following a designated route. This technology makes it possible to get fast accurate meter readings from as far as 1000 feet from the structure. The radio read system will alert tre reader if the meter has been tampered with or if there was a backflow from the house to our system. It will also alert the meter reader if there is a 7