Burbs get utility meter technology running

Before long, Minnetonka and Richfield will no longer be sending water meter readers from house to house. And Coon Rapids can stop relying on residents to read their own meters on the honor system.

At a cost of more than $200 per home, the three communities are spending millions to install new water meters that can be read automatically by radio signals sent to a city truck driving down the street.

What they expect in return is dramatically reduced meter-reading time and readings precise enough to detect household leaks. The new technology could even help a city head off someone trying to tamper with a water supply.

Roughly three-fourths of metro-area cities already use automated meter reading, said Steve Mereness, sales manager for Dakota Supply Group, a distributor for meter manufacturers.

"In the past, you had city personnel who would walk from house to house and write down in a book the reading on the meter. Now one person can read the entire town in a day," Mereness said.

Cities that haven't made the switch want to, he said.

"They just have to figure out how to pay for it."

Side benefits

In Minnetonka, the new meters already have revealed hundreds of homes with possible water leaks. Since March, when the installations began, the city has sent out 500 to 700 postcards a month informing residents that they might have a leak after the meters -- which can track water use hour by hour -- have shown water running at the homes around the clock.

Nine times out of 10 there is a running toilet, a dripping faucet or a hose that is not turned off, said Public Works Director Brian Wagstrom. "We view that as customer service. Most people appreciate it."

Richfield has converted all but about 300 of its 11,000 water meters to a radio-read system and expects to finish by February. It can measure water use every 15 minutes.

"If water is flowing all the time, you're filling a swimming pool or you have a leaky faucet or a plumbing leak you don't know about," said Brian Young, Richfield's utilities superintendent. Detecting leaks should help the city meet the Metropolitan Council's directive that cities shouldn't have more than 10 percent of their water "unaccounted for," he said.

Because Coon Rapids' new meters show homeowners how many gallons of water they are using per minute, Utilities Supervisor Rick Bednar said they can spur conservation.

"When people start looking at that, they tend to get their mind opened up to 'maybe I can do this to conserve,'" he said. Coon Rapids' three-year, $3.2 million meter installation will be finished in 2010.

Other cities are easing into high-tech metering systems. Some are starting by requiring builders to put them in new houses.

Fridley lacks the $2.3 million it would cost to covert the entire community, so the city is putting in just 500 new meters next year to see if more accurate readings would generate new revenue to help pay for citywide installation, said Finance Director Rick Pribyl.

Now the city uses the honor system, relying on residents to send in readings from 35-year-old meters. "We are in the caveman days as far as the reading technology," Pribyl said. "Nobody has anything older that what we've got."

After installing new remote readout meters 10 years ago, Hopkins is doing it again this year because the devices' 10-year batteries are expiring, said Doug Anderson, utilities superintendent. The new meters, set to start in November, will have 20-year batteries and eventually could be read by wireless receivers that would allow a City Hall worker to collect the readings without leaving the office.

Edina, too, is looking at replacing its first-generation high-tech meters. But the city is hoping its 1996 system, which cost $2 million, keeps working until it has paid for itself, said Roger Glanzer, utility superintendent. That could take until 2012.

"It's outdated and very hard to get parts for," he said. "Our biggest fear is that the manufacturer will call up and say they're no longer supporting this."

Bloomington still has meters that have to be read by people who walk from house to house, either looking at numbers on a gauge outside the house or using a wand to pull numbers into a hand-held computer.

Terry Neuman, utilities customer service supervisor, said a new meter system could be proposed as part of the city's 2009 capital budget. "These new systems really are providing value-added services."

The more likely benefits are more mundane, yet real: "They help customers analyze when and how they're using water," Neuman said. "If someone notifies us that they'll be gone all winter, we could let them know if they had a burst pipe."