Metros and Municipalities Headed Toward Automatic Water Meters: Belle Fourche, South Dakota to Get Radio Frequency Water Meters Installed on Every Residence (RapidCityJournal)

Feb.09, 2009 in Water Technology

(Feb. 8, 2009, Rapid City Journal)

BELLE FOURCHE — The project may take the rest of the year, but after 2009, every water meter in Belle Fourche will have a miniature radio station beeping out its serial number and how much water the building uses.

Most water users here have received a mailing explaining the program, but there is more to the project.

Belle Fourche public works director Dirk Hoffman said $279,000 worth of equipment will go into the project to replace every water meter in Belle Fourche.

“We’re going to a new, updated meter reading system, which is automated and computerized,” he said.

Instead of his staff having to tramp through the brambles of every home and business in town, a city vehicle with a computer setup will drive past homes and businesses. The computer rig will catch the tiny radio signal from the new meter, flash the meter’s serial number and the street address, then transmit to the computer the reading on the water meter.

“Instead of having four or five people out in the field reading meters, we can get by with one person,” Hoffman said.

There is a another system available that would allow every meter to keep in contact with a computer in city offices, Hoffman said, “but those are quite a bit more expensive.”

The project will replace 2,434 water meters in Belle Fourche and get the computer equipment for the system.

Hoffman said the new meters are not just a normal replacement that carries a hefty price tag. In the long run, it will save money.

“Now, it takes about 150 hours total a month to read the meters. In the future, when this is all in place and all the fine details are put into place, we should be able to do it within eight to 15 hours.”

Dropping 130 work hours a month is a huge savings, and it means that if there is a blizzard, the department won’t have to pull people off snow removal to read meters.

Since Belle Fourche has experienced growth the past several years, the new meters will free up staff for more maintenance work on a much bigger community footprint than five years ago.

“We hope to do more maintenance on our sewer mains and to free up some of our people to do more maintenance on the streets.”

The new meters are expected in mid-February, he said. When city staff is ready, residents and business operators will start getting telephone calls asking them to be at their meter location during the installation.

“It shouldn’t take over a half-hour,” Hoffman said.

The city-wide installation project will be in addition to the public works staff’s normal work load, so it won’t be a quick changeover.

“I hope to start the first part of March, but it may be earlier,” he said. “Our goal is to get them all done by the end of 2009.”

(Original Article Here)