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Oklahoma City utilities win Water for 2060 award for Water Smart checkup program
Summary
The utilities department received the 2024 Water for 2060 Excellence Award (public supply category) for its Water Smart checkup program, which provides one-on-one leak detection and efficiency assessments; staff report over 1,000 checkups since 2020 and per-customer savings in identified cases.
At its Jan. 14, 2025 meeting, the Oklahoma City Water Utility Trust heard that the utilities department's Water Smart checkup program received the 2024 Water for 2060 Excellence Award in the public supply category.
"This award was given ... in recognition of achievements in water conservation efficiency, helping Oklahoma meet the Water for 2060 goal," said Kelsey Horton, water conservation specialist with the utilities department, summarizing the award and the program's work. Horton told trustees the program provides a one-on-one customer consultation to identify leaks and efficiency improvements when higher-than-expected water use cannot be resolved over the phone.
Horton said the Water Smart checkup was implemented in early 2020 and that the department has performed "1,000 or over 1,000" in-home or on-site checkups since January 2020. The most common issues identified include leaking toilets, broken sprinkler systems and inefficient outdoor watering schedules. For customers where the team identified a problem and repairs occurred, Horton said the department has observed a drop of about 30,000 gallons from the high bill to the post-checkup bill in those cases.
Horton credited a field team of roughly 27 field customer-service representatives, two senior field customer-service representatives and two field operation supervisors for carrying out the work year-round. Jonathan Geitz, field operation supervisor, and David Fields, senior field customer service representative, attended the meeting; Horton said other staff, including Jesse Hilly, line maintenance superintendent, were not present. Horton also acknowledged past contributors Brett Weingart and Lee Booth.
A board member asked whether the program serves customers on private wells; Horton answered, "I believe right now it's only open to if we have our water utilities services," meaning the program is available to city water customers. Trustees congratulated Horton and the team; Horton said many team members were out doing Water Smart checkups the day of the meeting.
Background The Water for 2060 initiative is a statewide planning effort to ensure a reliable supply of fresh water for Oklahoma's future economic growth. The Water Smart checkup program provides targeted leak detection and efficiency advice for municipal customers; the department did not provide an aggregate water-savings total or program budget during the presentation.
