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Residents, advocate press for consumer water-tracking apps; city says majority of meters are smart-ready and budgets will be studied
Summary
An advocate urged the city to adopt consumer-facing water apps (Aqua Hawk-type) to let customers monitor usage and detect leaks; the city said more than half of meters are smart, estimated startup costs at low six figures and said it will consider funding in the next budget cycle.
An advocate for water and sewer transparency urged Bethlehem officials on Tuesday to give residents access to consumer-facing water-tracking apps that pair with smart meters to detect leaks and avoid surprise bills. City officials said more than half of residential meters have already been converted and provided a preliminary cost range for implementing a public-facing platform.
Mark Marco Weber, introduced as a citizens' advocate for water and sewer issues, urged council to adopt software platforms such as Aqua Hawk or Ion Water so customers can monitor use in near real time. "This is gonna save you a lot of money. It's gonna help the city conserve water," Weber said, noting examples from other municipalities where apps alerted homeowners to broken pipes within hours.
City officials briefed council on the rollout of smart meters and the costs of a public interface. Edward Boscola, director of water and sewer resources, said the city has installed "a little more than 50%" of meters as smart meters'roughly "20,000 plus out of 37,000" accounts. Boscola said the city is evaluating software platforms that would provide customers with usage data, billing options and leak alerts and that implementing such a platform requires coordination with the city's IT and finance departments because of data, security and payment-handling issues.
Boscola gave a rough cost estimate: startup or year-one costs in the low six figures (roughly $100,000 range) and annual ongoing licensing and cloud-storage costs in the five-figure range. He said the administration would seek to include a budget line or earmark for the platform in the coming budget process, but could not guarantee a timeline. "It is our goal to implement something," Boscola said, while warning there are many moving parts and no firm schedule yet.
Why it matters
Consumer-facing meter apps allow households to see near-real-time usage, receive high-usage alarms and act quickly to fix leaks; municipalities also use the same data to improve system operations. City officials said a public-facing platform could reduce surprise high bills and help users conserve water, but that any rollout involves startup costs, licensing and security considerations.
Provenance
- topicintro: "Yeah. Mark Marco Weber from the, the DRIP, the citizen's advocate for water and sewer stuff." (public comment introduction). - topfinish: "The startup costs for these type of systems are in the low 6 figures. 100,000, for year 1. And then you have ongoing service costs... in the 5 figure range." (city staff cost estimate).
