Carlsbad farmers test electronic water meter program

By: BARBARA HENRY - Staff Writer
Water district hopes to eventually use it for all its 27,600 customers | Saturday, February 23, 2008 12:47 AM PST ∞

CARLSBAD ---- Hoping to detect drips before they become torrents of wasted water, the Carlsbad Municipal Water District is trying out a new electronic metering system on its agricultural water users and could eventually bring it to residential meters.

"For a little plastic device, it's pretty powerful," said Mario Remillar, a city employee who's coordinating the effort, as he described the amount of data the machines can generate.

The goal is eventually to roll out the program to all of the water district's customers ---- some 27,600 households and businesses in town, district Director Mark Stone said.

The water district is a subsidiary of the city, but it doesn't serve everyone in town. The southern end of the city is handled by the Olivenhain Municipal and Vallecitos water districts.

Unlike regular water meters, these new electronic radio transmission devices allow the Carlsbad Municipal Water District to track water usage hour-by-hour, using remote sensing equipment linked to the district's computer system.

Regular water meters ---- those bulky boxes attached to homes and businesses that have displays like a car's odometer ---- require monthly visits by city employees to check consumption rates. But with these devices, employees don't need to leave the office to find out how much water's being used.

The district could even investigate differences between daytime and nighttime usage to pinpoint whether water is running all the time ---- an indication that a customer might have a leak in the pipes, Remillar said.

Each device costs the department $250, so the district isn't planning to install them all at once. Instead, tentative plans call for spreading the installation out over a five-year period, Stone said

So far, the district has installed the devices on 25 water meters used by participants in a special agricultural water program. Under that regional program, growers receive lower water rates in exchange for agreeing to being first in line when cutbacks are ordered by the area's main water supplier ---- the Metropolitan Water District.

On Jan. 1, the growers received just such an order.

They have been directed to cut usage by 30 percent, so now is a great time to install the new technology, Stone said. If the meters are checked hourly, the customers can get a better handle on whether they're meeting the monthly cutback requirements, he said.

"We're watching them daily, so if we see any problems, leaks, we can call (the growers) immediately," Remillar added.

Representatives for several growers contacted during Friday's rainstorm said they weren't sure if they had the devices yet. They added that they would be more likely to notice the benefits later in the year when dry weather forces them to irrigate more often.

Contact staff writer Barbara Henry at (760) 901-4072 or bhenry@nctimes.com.

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