With California in yet another drought, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has put pressure on water utility companies to take drastic measures to reduce water consumption in the state.
In 2004, the California governor signed AB 2572, a bill that requires all residential and commercial properties to install a water meter by 2025, with the hope of conserving water in the state.
California American Water, a subsidiary of American Water, begun retrofitting and installing meters to its customers in Sacramento in 2003, and is now speeding up the process to reach the 2025 goal.
So far, the company has retrofitted 20,700 of its Sacramento customer’s water meters and plans to install meters for its remaining 29,765 customers by 2014.
The retrofitting project hasn’t been cheap for California American Water. The company has spent more than $16 million thus far to retrofit its customers and expects to spend a total of $56 million to complete its goal.
Andy Soule, general manager of the company’s northern California division, said the one of the reasons why the project is being sped up is to allow customers to gauge their water usage and save money.
“You can spend all the money, time and effort in the world on conservation awareness,” Soule said. “But, if you don't have a way for customers to measure how much water they are using, it's going to be difficult to wage a successful campaign. We are fast tracking this program so customers can control their water usage and their costs by conserving.”
The company said the project will affect its flat-rate customers, who pay a regular monthly fee, but will get a grace period of three months before the final conversion takes place.
Soul said that by charging customers for the amount of water they are using, will encourage them to conserve water better.
“Metering water usage provides economic incentives to change water use habits,” Soule said.