HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-Status Report on the Water Meter Project ProgressAgenda Item # 12
T U KEE D 11 NE#
Public Utility District
WORKSHOP
To:
From:
Date:
Subject:
Board of Directors
Brian Wright
September 18, 2013
Status Report on the Water Meter Project Progress
1. WHY THIS MATTER IS BEFORE THE BOARD
This item is informational. Board action is not required.
2. HISTORY
The Water Department began deployment of its automated meter reading (AMR)
system in September of 2008. The initial phases (2008-2010) were performed by
Measurement Control Systems (MCS). All of the work from 2011 to the present has
been performed by District staff.
The last progress report on the meter installation project was presented to the Board in
January 2011.
3. NEW INFORMATION
As of September 9, 2013 a total of 11,657 meters have been installed (700
commercial & 10,957 residential) encompassing about 93% of the customers (the
Water Department currently has a total of 12,515 customers). These totals include
both new construction and older customers where new meters were installed. The
great majority of these meters were installed in 2009 and 2010.
A total of 896 locations remain on the "Red Flag" list, which gives locations where a
meter has not yet been installed. The main factors preventing meter installation were:
• Meter box was buried and/or could not be located;
• Meter box was paved over or located under a deck, large rocks, tree, fence or
similar obstruction;
• No meter box, only a curb stop;
• Meter box was too small, too deep or damaged;
• Excessive groundwater; and
• Broken/inoperable valves.
The table below gives a breakdown of the Red Flag list by location.
Area
Quantity
Armstrong/Gateway
182
Donner Lake
37
Downtown/Olympic Heights
27
Prosser/Northeast
128
Sierra Meadows/Ponderosa Palisades
140
Tahoe Donner
366
Commercial (Various Locations)
16
Total
896
During the past three summers (including 2013), the Water Department has created a
three -person meter box installation crew from its field staff. This crew has been
working to install meters at Red Flag locations. The crew has completed all
installations in the Glenshire and Hirschdale areas. The work in Olympic Heights will
be completed in September 2013. The crew will also complete some of the remaining
commercial installations this year.
During the summer of 2014, the meter installation crew will be working in the Prosser
Heights and Prosser Lakeview areas. Each winter, the Water Department has
prepared a set bid documents for procurement of the necessary meter boxes, piping
materials and other hardware to be installed the following summer. The bid
documents for the 2014 work will be prepared later this fall.
The January 2011 presentation gave a summary and lessons learned regarding the
meter project. Given below is an update regarding some of those items:
• Currently, about 7% of the customers have a leak somewhere after the meter
box. This compares to about 10% of customers with a leak in 2011. The main
causes of leaks remain unchanged:
1) Malfunctioning, damaged or improperly operated irrigation systems
2) Corroded or improperly operated stop and drain valves
3) Leaking toilets
4) Corroded customer -owned service laterals
• The District continues to be strongly pro -active in regards to notifying customers
regarding pipe breaks and large customer leaks in the winter. Detection and
notification of leaks in the summer is more problematic due to irrigation usage
that tends to mask leaks in consumption data.
• A number of errors within the Customer Information System have been
identified and corrected. These errors were mainly associated with developers
providing erroneous information for multi -family residential properties.
• All known illegal connections have been either equipped with a meter or
disconnected.
• Summarized in the table below is average daily metered consumption for
residential customers. As expected, there is a significant variation in water
consumption when comparing winter to summer due to irrigation related usage.
There is not sufficient data to determine any long term trends. However, there
is a significant variation in May and June consumption which is related to
severity of the winter, snowfall/snowpack and when customers being irrigating
in the summer.
Average Daily Metered Consumption for Residential Customers,
aallons Der connection Der day
Month
2011
2012
2013
January
114
92
109
February
111
96
98
March
100
90
91
April
96
94
117
May
108
221
225
June
215
325
325
July
365
386
390
August
366
357
358
September
294
299
October
137
170
November
87
85
December
95
99
4. FISCAL IMPACT
Expenditures related to the water meter project have been funded from the Reserve
for Future Meters Fund. The Fund started with a balance of about $1.4 million.
During the period of 2009-2013, revenue of about $3.7 million will have been
generated by the Water Meter Surcharge and directed into the Reserve for Future
Meters Fund. An additional $250,000 was directed into the Reserve for Future
Meters Fund in 2011.
Expenditures related to the meter installation project total about $4.3 million to date,
and should reach about $4.5 million by the end of the year. The projected balance in
the Reserve for Future Meters Fund at the end of 2013 is about $900,000.
Future expenditures are estimated at $450,000 per year for the next five years. It is
anticipated that once the Reserve for Future Meters Fund is exhausted, the
remaining work will be funded from rates.
5. RECOMMENDATION
Receive this report and provide comment.
Michael D. Holley
General Manager / Water Utility Manager