Community Water System Realizes Big Benefits with Advanced Metering

"It's just a couple of roads, 54 homes," explained Russell Hedgpeth, Operations Manager at SMWC. "It's one of those old-style neighborhoods where people get together for 4th of July, do parades—that kind of Americana."

Given its remote mountain location, the community is keenly aware of the need to conserve water resources. "We are reliant on surface water, a stream, that has to get us through winter and summer," Hedgpeth said. "We put up a dam after the rainy season and then take it down before the next."

There have even been times of drought when water had to be trucked into the community to meet demand. "We haven't had to do that since I've been here, but it's happened," he said.

Despite being a very small water utility, SMWC prides itself on being progressive and forward-thinking. "Obviously our goal is to provide quality water, but we'd like to do that while working on water conservation, process automation, cost savings and efficiency across the entire system," Hedgpeth said.

The water plant is state of the art, Hedgpeth noted. "We probably have more automation, sensors, automated valves and remote access than water companies ten times our size," he added.

Implementing efficient and sustainable operations is a major objective for Hedgpeth because, as the operations manager of such a small water company, he is very hands-on. "I have to touch everything from the source through the plant—all the way to the meter at the end user's home."

So, when SMWC's aging positive displacement meters began to affect accuracy and impact labor resources, Hedgpeth knew it was time to upgrade.

"Some of these meters we had in the ground were more than 40 years old," he noted. "The cost to go to an ultrasonic meter with the cellular endpoint was comparable enough that it made sense for us to upgrade to current technology." After a careful review of providers and technology options, SMWC settled on E-Series^® Ultrasonic meters with ORION^® Cellular endpoints from Badger Meter.

One of the features that stood out to Hedgpeth was the meter's ability to measure very low flows. Unlike positive displacement meters, which typically read down to 0.25 gallons per minute (GPM), the E-Series Ultrasonic meter can detect flows as low as 0.05 GPM. The meter's high resolution is critical for identifying small, parasitic leaks common among residential properties, such as from toilets, faucets and hose bibs. "Those types of leaks leach a small amount of water but multiplied by the number of homes with those leaks, it really adds up," said Hedgpeth.

With the cellular endpoint technology, meter reading happens automatically. "It's pretty remote up here in the mountains," Hedgpeth explained. Even for the small number of homes in SMWC's service area, manual meter reading can be a five-mile route.

"Rain or shine, the meter reader has to go out at the end of the month, drive the car, get out, find the meter box, lift the lid, look at the meter," he said. Now, the readings come in automatically; all that wasted time, effort, money and fuel have been eliminated.

With real-time data that continually updates, discovering unusual consumption patterns also happens a lot faster now. "It's all automated," Hedgpeth explained. "The end user gets an alert; we get an alert. We're able to find leaks in a day as opposed to a week or months, which is a big deal for us."

The ability to detect leaks quickly not only conserves limited water resources but also drives operational efficiencies. Reducing the loss of treated water means more efficient use of treatment chemicals like disinfectants and coagulants, which delivers cost savings to SMWC. "There's also the electrical usage and mechanical wear and tear to pump that water to all the homes," Hedgpeth added.

SMWC customers also appreciate having access to their water consumption data through the EyeOnWater^® consumer engagement tool. "We have four tiers of water usage," Hedgpeth explained, "and obviously it is a benefit to stay in the lower tiers. Before, [customers] would have to wait until the end of the month to find out how much water they'd used."

Now, customers can access their usage through the EyeOnWater app and know exactly where they stand. With 94% of SMWC customers enrolled in the app, it's clearly a hit.

Customers can even set leak alerts to notify them when they've exceeded a certain threshold. "That's my favorite feature of the app," Hedgpeth said, "because everyone that's gotten the leak alert was surprised that they had a leak."

Hedgpeth recalled one customer who was shocked to discover his water softener was constantly wasting to drain. "That's two and a half gallons per hour, which sounds small. But multiplied by 24 hours over 30 days—that's significant," he said.

SMWC may be small, Hedgpeth said, "but we're focused on efficiency, cost savings, and quality of water." Upgrading to ultrasonic meters with cellular endpoints checked all the boxes for this progressive community water system, taking it another step forward in its journey toward sustainability.