If you own a business venture in the city of Benton Harbor, or a residence in the city, plan on getting a new water meter installed within the next couple of months. Benton Harbor City Manager Darwin Watson says thanks to a SAW Grant from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality, new meters will be installed city-wide beginning in the second week of July, making things dramatically more accurate and efficient.
Watson says that the city has contracted with B&Z Company of Benton Harbor to replace every water meter in the city limits for the first time since 1991. They certainly should be up to the task, inasmuch as they were the ones who installed the current meters 25 years ago.
The project will begin on or about July 11th and will launch with the largest meters in the city, typically those in manufacturing plants, business enterprises, schools and apartment complexes. Those typically take up to an hour to change out in each case depending on the complexity of the system involved and the ease of access. Once the largest of the water meters have been replaced, the contractor will move on to residential metering.
In the case of homes or businesses being contacted while they are away, a hang-tag will be left behind referring all parties to the city or B&Z for re-scheduling at a more mutually convenient time.
The new system will be a radio-controlled metering system, wherein each meter has the ability to send data directly to a roving receiver that will travel the city's streets and highways taking readings by radio waves into a computer system for determination of the proper billing. The system eliminates the need for costly personnel to manually check each meter in the city. Under the new methodology, all the meters in the city can be read within a single day, whereas current meter-reading technology takes up to 20-working days every single month.
The SAW Grant is from the Stormwater-Asset Management-WasteWater system from the Michigan DEQ. The same grant allowed the city to use video technology to scan existing water pipe infrastructure in the city to determine age and condition of the city's aging water lines.
Watson says that the new technology will also be capable of helping officials track overnight water flow rates to determine if there are unknown leaks at individual homes or businesses that need to be repaired to keep water from being needlessly wasted.
Most residential change-outs will take a half-an-hour or less, and will only cause a brief interruption in service to the individual property being changed. There is no direct cost to any business entity or resident for the new metering system, thanks to the SAW Grant program.
Watson says further promotional materials will be going out to city water users near the time of the project to further explain what each business or homeowner should expect during the shift.
