Water Meters

Workers have begun replacing water meters in 12,000 households in Baltimore City and county, public works officials announced this week. The meters can be read remotely, eliminating the need for workers to travel to the homes, and will replace outdated meters that no longer function properly, public works spokeswoman Celeste Amato said. Officials hope to eventually replace meters for the 400,000 households on the municipal water system with the meters, which will eliminate the need to estimate water bills, Amato said.

It's apparent that there are many problems in Baltimore's water system as managed by the Department of Public Works. The situation in the field is way out of date, and the entire billing system should be computerized. At most other locations in the country, water districts have interior water meters with electronic exterior readouts and have had them for the past 15 to 20 years. This arrangement is accompanied by a shut-off valve on the water service lateral located at the property line at the street.

Anybody who has ever tried to figure out a Baltimore water bill likely had a simple reaction to news last week that the city's Department of Public Works was going to improve billing procedures and upgrade its water meters: It's about time. The City Council is scheduled to take up a measure tonight sponsored by Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke that would end the practice of estimating bills, which has led to sticker shock for many water customers who have faced inexplicably huge charges.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday on a proposed 9 percent increase to water and sewer rates. The board meets in room 215 at City Hall, 100 Holliday Street. The latest cost increase would raise the average family of four's annual bill from $1,170 to $1,276, public works officials said. The city has increased water and sewer rates by 9 percent or more all but two years since 2000 to pay for repairs to the aging system. A decade ago, the average family paid $517 annually for city water.

A Wisconsin company touting a better water meter is hoping the town of Manchester will beat a path to its door.Manchester's ad hoc committee on water and sewers heard a sales pitch last night from Badger Meter Inc., of Milwaukee, for an automated water meter system that would eliminate the need for meter readers.Some Town Council members also attended the presentation."We're looking real hard at this system," said Steven L. Miller, the town's water and sewer superintendent. "The elderly people like it because that's one less person who's going to be nosing around their homes"The automated system uses computerized water meters that automatically call a computer in the town office at night to report meter readings.

Manchester is throwing money down the drain.The town's water meters are wearing out, causing them to under-estimate the amount of water some customers are using, said Steven Miller, the town's water and wastewater superintendent.That means water users are being under-billed, and the town is losing tens of thousands of dollars in uncollected water and sewer charges.Recently, water and waste water department figures show, the town has only been billing for about 78 percent of the water it has pumped.

BOLINAS, CALIF. - - Blessed with a quaint downtown and some of the most impressive scenery on the Pacific Coast, this town is largely unknown even in San Francisco, 20 miles south. To keep that from changing, residents have a habit of tearing down highway signs that so much as mention Bolinas. The same urge to remain pristine has led to one of the most extreme anti-growth policies in the nation. For more than 30 years, Bolinas has refused to authorize a single new water meter, needed for hooking up to the town water supply.

New Windsor residents will receive a note with their monthly bills telling them if their water meters have remained unread and why.Mayor Jack A. Gullo Jr. said the change in billing comes after a resident complained about a leak the town meter reader failed to detect because he was not able to read the meter.Albert Grimes, son of Councilman Kenny Grimes, earlier this year went to make a quarterly reading of the meter in the 300 block of Main St. The meter was at the end of the property, between the home and the street, said the resident, who asked not to be named.

Baltimore's Public Works Department is issuing more than $4.2 million in water bill refunds to 38,000 households in the city and Baltimore County after an audit showed the agency overcharged tens of thousands of customers. The audit, released Wednesday, found that some homes received only estimated water bills for years at a time while others received no bills. And while city water officials say they made $40 million in billing corrections in 2010 alone, the auditors were unable to locate paperwork to support that.

For the fourth consecutive year, Baltimore officials are proposing a 9 percent increase to water and sewer rates — and the charges will continue to grow indefinitely to cover the costs of major projects, they say. The proposed rate increases come as the Department of Public Works has been grappling with high-profile billing problems that have been attributed to faulty water meters, outdated computer programs and, in some neighborhoods, fictitious meter...

For the fourth consecutive year, Baltimore officials are proposing a 9 percent increase to water and sewer rates — and the charges will continue to grow indefinitely to cover the costs of major projects, they say. The proposed rate increases come as the Department of Public Works has been grappling with high-profile billing problems that have been attributed to faulty water meters, outdated computer programs and, in some neighborhoods, fictitious meter...

A recent article about two former Department of Public Works meter readers did not accurately reflect the proactive steps taken by DPW to reduce water meter billing errors ("City official: Lazy workers faked water meter readings," May 15). The agency's new quality control processes were instrumental in identifying, addressing and resolving the issue by removing the two employees from government service before the reporters' inquiry. The truth is that when a pattern of errors emerged in December of 2011, the former employees were confronted, and they were quickly removed.

I want to thank Ms. Nina Platt of Homeland for providing me with a copy of her outrageous water bill - and her neighbor's - because, until this happened, I was feeling left out of the Great Baltimore Water Bill Commiseration. It seems like everybody in the city but me has a goofy and outrageous water bill to brag and gripe about. My bill looks normal, boring and puny compared to what I see here: $813.75 due by May 29 for Ms. Platt, who lives alone, and $1,219.06 for the family of four next door.

Two city water meter readers turned in phony numbers in at least two neighborhoods in recent months, the Department of Public Works acknowledged Tuesday, leading to more inaccurate billing by an agency that has been troubled by aging infrastructure and high error rates. As the Bureau of Water and Wastewater tries to correct the mistakes, residents who were undercharged are seeing a spike in their water charges - and officials say they must pay. The latest twist in the city's water billing problems, which have affected at least one in 10 local homeowners, did not go over well in the North Baltimore neighborhood of Homeland, where residents were already angry about the unusually high charges.

As Baltimore's Public Works Department issues more than $4.2 million in water bill refunds, Howard County officials say they will likely avoid similar issues because of recent upgrades to the county billing system. "We just finished a total upgrade of our water billing system in the last two years; we do not use the same system Baltimore uses," county spokesman Kevin Enright wrote in an email. He said the error rates are now at 1 percent. Water meters are read and transferred electronically using a radio interface.

The Baltimore City Council unanimously approved a resolution Monday calling on Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's administration to order a halt to the practice of placing liens against homes with unpaid water bills. "This is not to say that people shouldn't pay their bills," said Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young. But he added, "The department's audit presented a lot of troubling things. We can't take the chance that these bills are inaccurate. " The resolution comes after a city audit showed that tens of thousands of households in the city and Baltimore County received incorrect water bills.

Baltimore's Board of Estimates will hold a public hearing at 9 a.m. Wednesday on a proposed 9 percent increase to water and sewer rates. The board meets in room 215 at City Hall, 100 Holliday Street. The latest cost increase would raise the average family of four's annual bill from $1,170 to $1,276, public works officials said. The city has increased water and sewer rates by 9 percent or more all but two years since 2000 to pay for repairs to the aging system. A decade ago, the average family paid $517 annually for city water.

Malfunctioning water meters may not be the main reason the town of Manchester has been losing much of the water it has pumped, Councilman John A. Riley says.Leaking water pipes may have been the main culprit, he said at Tuesday's Town Council meeting.In a report to the town last spring, Steven L. Miller, water and waste water superintendent, said the system had been losing significant amounts of water for eight years. The amount lost varied from 17 percent to 34 percent, he said. A loss of 9 percent is considered normal in a system of this size.

Baltimore's Public Works Department is issuing more than $4.2 million in water bill refunds to 38,000 households in the city and Baltimore County after an audit showed the agency overcharged tens of thousands of customers. The audit, released Wednesday, found that some homes received only estimated water bills for years at a time while others received no bills. And while city water officials say they made $40 million in billing corrections in 2010 alone, the auditors were unable to locate paperwork to support that.

Workers have begun replacing water meters in 12,000 households in Baltimore City and county, public works officials announced this week. The meters can be read remotely, eliminating the need for workers to travel to the homes, and will replace outdated meters that no longer function properly, public works spokeswoman Celeste Amato said. Officials hope to eventually replace meters for the 400,000 households on the municipal water system with the meters, which will eliminate the need to estimate water bills, Amato said.