HomeMy WebLinkAbout12, Workshop- water meters
WORKSHOP
To: Board of Directors
From: Neil Kaufman
Date: January 19, 2011
Subject: Water Meter Project Progress Report & Water Usage Trends
1. WHY THIS MATTER IS BEFORE THE BOARD
This item is informational. Board action is not required.
2. HISTORY
AB 2572 requires that the District begin reading the water meters installed since 1992
and commence billing on a volumetric basis by January 1, 2010. AB 2572 also
requires that all connections be equipped with water meters and billed on a
volumetric basis by January 1, 2025.
In the late Summer of 2008, the District issued a request for proposals for the
provision of an automated meter reading (AMR) system and the installation of water
meters. In response to that RFP, the District received five proposals, three for drive-
by systems and two for fixed-base systems.
The District determined that implementation of a fixed based system would best
serve its needs and the review was focused on those two proposals.
A proposal from Measurement Control Systems (MCS) for a system utilizing
meters manufactured by Neptune and radios manufactured by Aclara.
A proposal from Vulcan Construction for a system utilizing meters
manufactured by American Meter Company (AMCO) and radios manufactured
by Datamatic.
In September 2008, the Board awarded a contract to MCS for implementation of a
pilot program consisting of about 400 meters. In May of 2009, the Board awarded a
contract to MCS to cover Phase 2 of the Water Meter Implementation program. This
Phase 2 contract covers the installation of about 6,750 meters in total. This existing
contract was structured to begin in May 2009 with the final installations to be
performed in June 2010.
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The total value of the Phase 2 contract was $2,107,000 (not including sales tax).
The Board also established a 10% change order authorization for a total amount not
to exceed of $2,440,000 including sales tax.
In May 2010, the Board awarded a contract to MCS to cover Phase 3 of the Water
Meter Implementation program. This Phase 3 contract covered the installation of
about 4,735 meters. The total value of the Phase 3 contract was $1,471,592.06 (not
including sales tax). The Board also established a 10% change order authorization
for a total amount not to exceed of $1,618,000.
3. NEW INFORMATION
As of January 1, 2011, a total of 10,777 meters have been installed (651 commercial
and 10,126 residential) encompassing about 86 percent of the customers. The Water
Department currently has a total of 12,526 customers.
To date, 1,637 locations have been identified where a meter could not be installed.
This list of locations has been designated as the “Red Flag” list. 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
Broken/inoperable valves
The table below gives a break of the Red Flag list by location.
Area Quantity
Armstrong/Gateway 122
Donner Lake 46
Downtown/Olympic Heights 155
Glenshire/Hirschdale 627
Prosser/Northeast 134
Sierra Meadows/Ponderosa Palisades 146
Tahoe Donner 388
Commercial (Various Locations) 19
Total 1,637
Plan for 2011-2014
As noted above, there are 1,637 locations where a meter still needs to be installed.
At almost all of these locations, excavation work will be necessary to install a new
meter box or repair existing facilities.
During the summer of 2011, the Water Department currently anticipates creating a
three-person meter box installation crew from its field staff. It is expected that this
crew will begin with the commercial meter locations and then proceed with work in
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the Glenshire area. It is anticipated that this crew will able to accomplish 350 to 400
installations. At the end of 2011, the Water Department will be able to provide a more
refined timeline for installation of the remaining meters.
The Water Department is currently preparing a set of bid documents for procurement
of the necessary meter boxes, piping materials and other hardware. After the bids
have been received, they will be presented to the Board along with a
recommendation for award of a materials purchase contract.
Lessons Learned from Meter Installation Project
The District has gained additional knowledge throughout the course of the metering
project. Some of the major items are:
The Water Department was aware of about 400 customers that did not have a
meter box. An additional 200 customers without meter boxes have been
identified and there are an additional 125 locations where the meter box could
not be located. This total is higher than anticipated.
There are about 800 locations where the meter box was inspected and the
condition of the existing facilities (meter box and/or piping) prevented the
installation of a meter. This total was also higher than anticipated.
About 10 percent of the customers had a leak somewhere after the meter box.
Some leaks were quite large and approached 10 gallons per minute (gpm).
These leaks typically occurred in one of four locations:
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
In some cases, these leaks had been occurring prior to the installation of the
meter; however the District had no method to detect the leak and then
informing the customer. In other cases, the leaks occurred at a later date.
There is an ongoing problem related to the improper operation of stop and
drain valves. Stop and drain valves have a 90° rotation and the valve can be in
one of three positions:
1) Full open (0° position)
2) Full closed (90° position)
3) Partially open (anyplace between 0° and 90°).
A partially open valve will create a leak under a house of up to 5 gallons per
minute. This leak is often not readily apparent to the occupant. There have
also been situations where customers have turned on their irrigation systems
in the winter, creating a “leak” of up to 10 gallons per minute.
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Considerable staff time has been spent informing customers of these leaks
and addressing customer concerns. Some customers do not have an
appreciation of how much water they actually use and there have been some
over-reactions to letters from the District regarding relatively small leaks. The
Water Department has also developed a handout that addresses problems
with stop & drain valves. A copy of the handout is included as Attachment 1..
The new metering system has provided the District with the ability to be pro-
active in regards to pipe breaks and large customer leaks. During the period of
cold weather just before Thanksgiving, a few customers suffered from frozen
pipes which then cracked. The District was able to identify these leaks the
following work day and then notify the customer. Some of these leaks were as
large as 16 gpm. There was one customer that had a pipe break in the ceiling
of their first floor with a flow rate of about 11 gpm. The customer was notified
by telephone and was able to stop the flow of water the same day.
In the past, these pipe breaks would often continue until the owner arrived at
the property or another party (neighbor, deliveryman, etc) noticed a flow of
water coming from the structure. Such a leak could have gone undetected for
weeks. While the new system cannot prevent these leaks, it can detect them
relatively quickly and help to minimize the damage that occurs.
The District has been able to correct some problems within its Customer
Information System resulting from erroneous information provided by
developers. As noted at a previous meeting, the Water Department identified a
problem with the assignment of meters to the correct customer in multi-unit
residential properties. The Water Department has spent significant effort
investigating this problem and it is almost complete. A total of 198 mis-
assigned meters have been identified out of the 687 that have been
investigated. The District also identified some other billing information
problems that have been corrected.
The Water Department identified about a dozen illegal irrigation connections.
In these cases, the owner had made a connection to the District’s system
without paying the appropriate fees and was not paying a monthly bill for
service. These situations have been corrected by either initiating a monthly
bill, or physically disconnecting the illegal connection.
There has been a significant reduction in Winter-time water usage over the
past few years. As shown in the table below, water usage has dropped by
about 25 percent since 2007.
Year Jan – Feb Water Usage (mgd)
2007 4.11
2008 3.57
2009 3.42
2010 3.08
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This reduction can likely be attributed to two factors:
1) The District’s pipeline replacement program removed about 54,500 feet of
pipeline in poor condition from the distribution system.
2) The installation of water meters has allowed the District to identify and
contact those customers with leaks on their side of the meter. For the most
part, customers have been diligent in correcting these problems.
4. FISCAL IMPACT
As noted above, the total value of the Phase 2 contract was about $2.11 million. To
date a total of about $2.06 million has been spent under this contract.
The total value of the Phase 3 contract was about $1.47 million. To date, a total of
about $1.39 million has been spent under this contract.
For 2011, a direct expenditure of about $880,000 is anticipated. This amount is
based on a total of 400 installations at a cost of $2,200 per installation. This $2,200
includes District field labor and equipment, along with necessary parts and materials.
There will be additional District labor costs associated with administrative,
engineering and management functions for this work, for a total cost of about
$1,000,000.
Annual costs for the period of 2012 to 2014 are expected to be similar to 2011 at
around $1,000,000 per year. The total cost for the project is currently estimated at
about $7.5 million.
To date, two funding sources have been identified for this project.
1) Reserve for Future Meters Fund - This fund had a balance of about $1.3
million at the start of the project. All of these funds have been spent.
2) Water Meter Surcharge – In 2008, the Board of Directors implemented a
monthly surcharge of $5 on all customers (effective January 2009) to help fund
the water meter project. This surcharge will expire at the end of 2013. To date,
about $1.5 million has been collected by this surcharge. It is anticipated that
an additional $2.3 million will be generated during the period of 2011 to 2013,
for a total of $3.8 million.
Based on a total project cost of $7.5 million, there is currently a funding shortfall of
about $2.4 million. Potential funding sources to cover this remaining cost include rate
monies and reserve funds.
5. RECOMMENDATION:
Receive this report and provide comment.
_______________________________
Michael D. Holley,
General Manager / Water Utility Manager
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