Water meters are used to track how much water is withdrawn at our sources and how much is used by customers connected to the distribution system.  Every connection in Topsfield is metered - even those used by the Water Department. 

During the winter of 2006, a three-year meter replacement project began in which all our customer's meters were to be replaced with new radio read meters.  Four hundred fifty thousand dollars ($450,000) was appropriated over the three year period to purchase and install the new meter reading system.  The work was conducted by Water Department employees and outside vendors.

The project is almost complete with 9 meters left to change out of over 1,750 service connections.  The system has allowed us to increase our billing frequency from semi-annually to quartley for most customers.  There are approximately 75 customers billed monthly due to their high use or preference.  Currently we bill one third of our customers each month which spreads the cash flow out over the course of the year and reduces conflicts with tax billings.

Another advantage of the new system is the data that it provides.  Meters are read on a monthly basis and the readings are archived.  We are in the process of creating a system that will merge the archived readings with the billing records for analysis.  One of the important measures of the health of the distribution system is Unaccounted for Water.  This is typically calculated on an annual basis but the reading archive will allow us to calculate water loss on a monthly basis to help detect leaks.  We also plan on porting the readings to the web so customers can track what their usage is online and receive email alerts if water use is outside a certain range.