Louisiana city installs automated water meters
LAKE CHARLES, La. (AP) — A Louisiana city is planning to provide 35,000 utility customers with new, automated water meters over the next 16 to 18 months.
The utilities manager in Lake Charles says the city will have “the most advanced metering system on the Gulf Coast, The American Press reports. The Lake Charles City Council approved the plans unanimously on Wednesday.
Mayor Nic Hunter said the new meters will provide customers with more accurate water bills and remove the need for meter readers — important in light of current staff shortages that have led to customer dissatisfaction over estimated water usage . Hunter said the meters also will allow the city to quickly identify water leaks and reduce water waste.
“We need to bring this city up to modern times,” Hunter said. “This initiative really is a game changer for this city. I think, in five or 10 years, we will look back at this moment and realize how important this was for our water system.”
A company called Sustainability Partners will supply and install the new water meters. The effort will mostly be funded by $2 million the city received from a federal stimulus package passed last year known as the American Rescue Plan Act. The council also approved a plan to help fund the project by adding $2 to $3 to household customers’ water bills.
Hurricane Laura’s August 2020 landfall and the winter storm last February exposed weaknesses in the water system and led to pushes for quicker action to address the city’s aging water system. Hundreds of city workers and contractors were used after the winter storm to spot leaks in the system.
“With these new meters, one person at City Hall could have an immediate printout of every home in the city that had a water leak,” Hunter said. “Those hundreds of employees could have been reduced and, within hours, they could have targeted those individual homes, turned off the water and restored water pressure throughout the city.”
City Utilities Manager Kevin Heise said the new water meters have a 30-year battery life.
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