Sacramento Priorities: Water Meters Now, Water Mains Later

On tight city budgets, funding infrastructure upgrades often means choosing to address some priorities now while leaving other important goals on the back burner.

Sacramento is dealing with this issue as it attempts to furnish the entire city with new water meters.

In February, the Department of Utilities won approval from the City Council to draw from $250 million that was originally earmarked for water mains and other upgrades. The funds will instead be spent on installing water meters, according to Capital Public Radio.

Bill Busath with the Department of Utilities explained how the decision will look on paper.

"Initially the cost is less because of the backyard mains that we will not be replacing, that we will be leaving in the backyard. But, as those mains are replaced, those savings will be made up and we'll probably even have a little bit of extra expenses in the long term," he said, per the report.

Under this plan, water main upgrades and water meter installations will occur in different phases.

About "12,400 backyard meters will have to be replaced and re-installed when the water mains are eventually removed. Busath says over a 40-year period, the City might spend $20 million extra by the time it has replaced the last backyard main," the report said.

The city has until 2025 to "meet a legislative mandate that all 136,000 of its residences have water meters," according to Capital Public Radio.

Around 100,000 water meter are expected to be installed during the two-decade-long project, KQED reported. The city began nearly ten years ago.

For more information on water metering, visit Water Online's AMR, AMI And Metering Solution Center.