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Committee hears early water‑loss detection and customer‑portal gains after AMI rollout
Summary
Committee heard that the district's new AMI meters and customer portal are already flagging customer‑side leaks and improving near‑real‑time data. Staff reported 18 customer leak 'points of interest' in a recent report and said the full 4,000‑meter integration remains in progress.
The Resources and Infrastructure Committee was briefed June 16 on the district’s deployment of Ion/Badger advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) and an accompanying customer portal, which staff said is already helping detect leaks and reduce unaccounted‑for water.
Committee members heard that a pilot portal with about 14 users has been active and staff produced a recent report identifying 18 customer‑side 'points of interest' for possible leaks. "Water staff visited 18 sites last week," Superintendent Cody Meeks said, adding that crews found examples ranging from hose gaskets left under pressure to a service line rupture that was running at "41 gallons of hour." Meeks said staff shut off service, notified homeowners and left door hangers while follow‑up work is scheduled.
The portal transmits meter reads three times daily — once between 6:00 and 8:00 a.m., again between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m., and a third time between 4:00 and 6:00 p.m. "We receive about three transmissions a day," Meeks said, describing how the cadence enables near‑real‑time alerts and faster customer outreach compared with previous manual monthly reads.
Why it matters: staff said the AMI network and portal give the district the ability to spot leaks quickly and to provide customers with graphs and usage detail when they dispute bills. "We've had multiple customers say they were never home, and then we pull up the graph and they're like, 'Oh yeah, we had someone staying at the house,'" Meeks said, illustrating how the data has helped resolve billing disputes.
The committee also heard about operational details and limits. The system currently includes about 4,000 meters but about 82 remain on radio‑only devices because of poor cellular coverage in parts of the service area (several were noted on Sans Creek Road). Staff said the district is working to integrate AMI data with billing and asset systems (Tyler and Badger) and that some back‑office data entry remains.
Practical instructions and outreach: Meeks reminded customers to keep three feet of clearance around meter boxes to ensure transmissions and noted the district can relocate meter boxes for a fee where access presents problems. He also said the AMI devices include tamper detection to flag unauthorized access. Staff encouraged customers who use third‑party devices such as Flume to run them alongside AMI while comparing results.
Next steps: staff said further dashboard development and community outreach will follow; field verification of satellite‑identified leak points from an Astera imagery run is scheduled for July 14 and a fuller set of leak‑detection results is expected in August.
Attribution: quotes and attributions in this article come from the Resources and Infrastructure Committee meeting transcript and are attributed to Superintendent Cody Meeks and other staff as noted. The committee approved its May 12 minutes by unanimous roll call during the same meeting.
