Municipal Water Use: Efficiencies of Electronic Systems
Officials in one Kansas community witness effective time savings in reading water meters and more water use awareness for residents.
Photo and caption available
May 13, 2015
RILEY, Kan. – A decade ago, the small town of Riley, Kansas, was facing big issues related to municipal water. Officials in the town of less than 1,000 people, located about 20 miles northwest of Manhattan, realized a 30 percent water loss for about five years consecutively.
In 2010, officials implemented an electronic meter reading system throughout the community, which included all new meters for homes and businesses, and 75 percent of the water mains replaced. All new meters not only made the monthly meter readings easier, but they also cut the community's water loss down to less than 10 percent.
"We used to read them by hand," said Alan Brown, referring to the old meters. Brown is the Public Works director for the City of Riley Water Division.
"You walk around, kneel down, read the meter and write it down. It took us a day and a half if we were going nonstop. If something happened in the meantime, it took us two days."
Now Brown and Doug Fasse, also with the Water Division, can drive around Riley in a pickup, read meters electronically and finish the task within an hour. Brown said the electronic meter readings are much more accurate than reading by hand.
Efficiency is crucial, as is helping home and business owners understand more accurately how much water they use. This example was one of many water-saving strategies discussed at 26 local water meetings hosted by the Kansas Water Office in March.
Brown attended the meeting in Manhattan and was one of about 1,200 people from across the state who provided input for regional water goals currently in development for Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's 50-year water vision. The Kansas Department of Agriculture and K-State Research and Extension also took part in facilitating the meetings.
Benefits in detail
Many communities have made the switch to updated meters with electronic capabilities, Brown said, while other Kansas communities still rely on reading meters by hand. Thus far, the benefits have outweighed the costs of implementation.
"Doug and I were fixing at least one water leak or main break a month," Brown said. "You could put that on a calendar. Sometimes we had more than one. We even had three in one day."
"The repairs don't just include the main you are fixing," he continued. "You also have to repair the street you've destroyed, because you had to dig it up to fix the main."
Since implementing the new system, Brown said he is now able to push snow in the wintertime while reading meters from the laptop in the pickup. A more efficient use of time allows him to focus on other projects more quickly.
He said another clear benefit is many people in the community are now more mindful of how much water they actually use. Before, the meters might not have been 100 percent accurate.
"These (new) meters are calibrated," Brown said. "They are all reading at 100 percent accuracy, and we can do a water profile off the meters. We can tell you how many gallons you are using every hour."
Meter reading will help city officials determine if there has been no water usage or much more water usage than normal, which indicates a leak, he explained. Owners are then notified, and the city will do a water profile at no charge to determine where the leak is occurring and help control the situation.
A handful of times, Brown recalls that homeowners have been out of town, and a water line broke and flooded their house.
"To turn it into insurance, the insurance company asks (the homeowner) when the line broke," he said. "We can pull a water profile and determine the exact time."
People tend to take water for granted and don't pay attention to how much water goes on the lawn, how long they are in the shower or the amount of water lost to a trickling faucet. Brown said this is why he calls the water profile "the biggest benefit" to the City of Riley's updated system.
Public meetings such as the one Brown attended helped regional goal leadership teams draft goals for the water vision plan, which will be presented to the Kansas Water Authority May 20.
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K-State Research and Extension is a short name for the Kansas State University Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service, a program designed to generate and distribute useful knowledge for the well-being of Kansans. Supported by county, state, federal and private funds, the program has county Extension offices, experiment fields, area Extension offices and regional research centers statewide. Its headquarters is on the K-State campus, Manhattan.
Story by: Katie Allen
katielynn@ksu.edu
K-State Research & Extension News
Alan Brown, 785-485-2425 or rileyshop@eaglecom.net
