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Waterworks report: automated meters, new call center and LA 18 water-main replacement
Summary
Department of Water Works reported near-complete meter automation (about 99% automated), a new call-center dashboard with high call-answer rates for July and multiple capital projects including an LA 18 cast-iron replacement and intake project closeout.
Department of Water Works Director Greg Gordon presented the department’s annual report at the Aug. 4 St. Charles Parish Council meeting, summarizing operational statistics, customer-service upgrades and ongoing capital projects.
Gordon said the department now has 23,328 meters, of which 23,117 are on automatic read systems and about 211 remain manually read — roughly 99% automated. He said the automatic-reading meters transmit through repeaters to base stations, and the system is backed up to the billing vendor’s cloud. “Our mission is, we provide a sufficient supply of safe drinking water and water for fire protection to citizens of Saint Charles Parish,” Gordon told the council.
Gordon described a newly implemented billing call center and MuniLink billing software integration that allows staff to track inbound and outbound calls, provide callbacks and send direct messages to customers during service events. He said the call center handled 2,452 calls in July and missed 14, yielding a roughly 99% answer rate for that month.
Gordon also outlined capital work: the East Bank Mississippi River intake project is at closeout and will be the subject of a change order coming to the council; an Eastbank warehouse and treatment-plant repairs have been completed; and the LA 18 River Road project is replacing about 4,800 feet of original cast-iron pipe with PVC from Ashton Boulevard to Annie Lane, with work expected to finish in December. He said a spillway waterline replacement is scheduled to start Aug. 25.
Council members asked about meter communications and emergency backups; Gordon said meters send frequent signals and that the most the parish would lose in an outage is about one day of meter data because of redundant systems and cloud backups.
The presentation was informational; there were no council votes tied directly to the Water Works report during the meeting.
