City of Duncanville

Springtime is upon us and the watering season is near.

The growing season also comes with "growing" concern over higher water bills. The City of Duncanville Utility Customer Service Office understands those concerns and wants to help you know how they read your water meters and bill you.

 

The city reads all the water meters in town in four cycles (approximately 3250 meters each cycle). The reading date appears on your bill each month. Your water meter is read at roughly the same time each month. You can then read your meter during that time and obtain an approximate reading that should match (depending on when it is read versus when you read it) your billing amount for water.

 

The city meter readers use a smartphone device to record readings from each meter through a Smart Phone Meter Reading (SPMR) application. The only information available to the meter reader from the device is the address and meter number. No readings from previous months are available for viewing from the hand-held units. The SPMR device stores earlier months' information but will not display it to the meter readers.

 

After the reader has entered the numbers from the water meter, the SPMR device will research them for accuracy. If the entered numbers are outside of a preset hi/lo range, the SPMR device will emit a warning tone. The reader will then have to re-enter the reading and the meter serial number in case they make a mistake when entering the meter reading on the first attempt. If the numbers are mainly outside the normal range, the readers will return and reread it to determine if there is a problem with the meter (possible leak at the property or an error with the reading).

 

"Our meter readers rotate within the city's cycles," says Utility Customer Service Manager Cassandra Wright. "We do this more to protect our readers from becoming bored with reading over 13,000 meters monthly. It also enables us to utilize this switching as a check and balance for the customer. For example, if a meter reader reads a meter wrong and our hi/lo exceptions don't detect it, the reader the next month can catch the error, and the department can resolve the matter quickly." The USCO Field Supervisor consistently monitors the water usage reports for any unusual habits by all meter readers.

 

"One of our main concerns as we get into the spring and summer months is safety," Wright said. Meters must be readable and free of shrubs, bushes, vehicles, and other encumbrances. Wright states, "Sure, it looks nice to have decorations to cover the meter box but put yourself in the reader's place. The meter box is cool and moist and can harbor anything from poisonous spiders to venomous snakes, bees, and wasps. If a meter is unreadable, the readers will note the problem. The meter will be reread, which will occur within the following days, to make whatever corrections are necessary.

 

Meter readers have also found that meter boxes cleaned out one month are covered the next month again. This coverage can be due to heavy rains or watering, which can cause dirt and other debris to flow back into the box.

 

Some citizens have expressed concern over water bills that remain constant, regardless of whether they are home or out of town. The city does have a minimum usage charge of $15.82 for 0 to 1,000 gallons. If you never use over 1,000 gallons in a month, then you will never go over the $15.82 charge for water.

 

Not only can irrigation cause a water bill to go up. Leaky faucets, toilets, and pipes can be a homeowner's worst nightmare. Leaking toilet tanks can waste as much as 200 gallons of water daily.

 

The Utility Customer Service Office offers a few tips to check for leaking fixtures and pipes:

 

• Shut off all water faucets in and outside the house. There is a small pinwheel, triangle, or circle on your meter register; this is the low flow indicator. Check if it is moving when all the faucets are off. If it is moving, then you know you have a leak. This may need to be checked several times, as toilets, faucets, and lawn sprinklers only sometimes leak all the time.
• A toilet leak may only occur once the tank drains to a certain height. Add some food coloring to the water in the tank and let it sit for a half-hour. Then check the bowl to see if the colored water has leaked into the bowl.
• If your faucets have old gaskets, it can take a lot of pressure to shut them off entirely. With different people using the tap, it may only sometimes be shut off completely.
• Sprinkler heads can sometimes stay open and leak water onto the lawn. Each sprinkler head uses between 3 and 5 gallons of water per minute. A sprinkler system station could leak as much as 90 gallons of water per minute depending on several factors, which can add up very quickly to your bill.

 

Look for water loss first. If you check these things first, it may save you and the City time and money. Even though you may not visibly see the leak or your meter moving, that does not mean you do not have a leak. 

 

Any leak or drip should be fixed immediately.

 

If you have any concerns about your bills or need water conservation information, contact the Utility Customer Service at (972) 780-5010.