SAN ANGELO, Texas (Concho Valley Homepage) — According to the City of San Angelo, dead or broken water meters have been costing the city thousands of dollars in lost revenue.
Because of recent supply change issues, receiving new water meters and accessories in a timely manner has been challenging. Known dead water meters (not registering flow) are not able to be replaced in a time-efficient manner because of the delivery schedule of new meters. In other cases damaged meters aren’t able to be replaced due to labor or other rare circumstances.
When broken or dead meters are not identified and replaced quickly, the Water Utilities Department loses revenue due to undetected and unmetered water consumption. It is
estimated that the Water Utilities Department loses an average of $25,000 in revenue per month due to the inability to bill for consumption due to broken or dead meters.
The estimated total cost of lost revenue so far is $167,200 with a little over 450 known dead meters across the city.
During the City Council meeting on June 6, Shane Kealton presented an ordinance amendment to allow for the recovery of the lost revenue. The amendment will allow City staff to charge for water consumption based on the average of the three prior months of water usage or the most current three-month period of metered usage.
This was approved 7-0 and will be adopted and become effective on June 20, 2023