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City reports progress in water-meter replacements and billing reconciliation
Summary
City staff reported improved alignment between water production and billing after replacing large commercial meters and adjusting reporting cycles; officials said more meter replacements and radio-read infrastructure could further reduce unaccounted-for water.
City staff updated the Galena City Council on May 12 about ongoing work to reconcile water production with billed usage and about planned meter upgrades intended to increase accountability.
City administrators and utilities staff said they had analyzed 13 months of production and billing data and that differences in reporting cycles had inflated previously reported discrepancies. With the cycle alignment, the apparent production-versus-billing range narrowed; staff reported a tightened range of about 58% to 71% of production being captured in billing reconciliations, up from a previously reported 51% to 83% range.
Officials reported that replacing several large commercial meters (hotels and other large users) has already increased reported accountability: “Since we replaced several of those, we've seen production versus billing going up to 67%,” a staff speaker said. Staff said four of the planned 20 large-user meter replacements remain to be installed.
City staff also described a propagation study with a radio-read vendor (Census) to assess locations for permanent reading devices on towers or high points around town. If the propagation study shows sufficient coverage, staff said they would present cost and installation plans to the council; those devices would enable more frequent reads and faster leak detection.
Staff said their goal is to reduce unaccounted-for water and improve billing exception reports, targeting a long-term accountability level closer to industry expectations. No budgetary action was taken at the meeting; staff said they will return to council with cost estimates after the propagation study and after the remaining meter replacements are complete.
