Vermont committee hears split over S.213: smart meters, privacy and how to secure small water systems

Senator Watson—alled the Natural Resources & Energy committee to consider S.213, a bill that would require cybersecurity protections and address smart‑meter use on public water systems, and invited operators and state agencies to testify.

Joe Duncan, general manager of Champlain Water District, told senators that modern water "smart meters" typically send encrypted, one‑way meter IDs and readings and that the most valuable feature is anomaly detection: "smart meters... have little chips in them that are telling them, is there a usage that's outside the norm," he said, explaining that flags help utilities find leaks before customers face very large bills. Duncan said meter radio reads do not themselves transmit a customer ddress; customer linking occurs later inside a municipality's billing system. He said Champlain already permits opt‑outs and charges a manual‑read fee when customers choose not to accept remote reads, citing staff time and special handling for manual entries.

Liz Royer, executive director of the Vermont Rural Water…