CVWD’s New Water-Saving Tool Available for Customers – CVN Article September 15, 2022

As the drought lingers on it is important now, more than ever, to ensure that we are preventing water waste whenever possible. The District undertook an Automated Meter Infrastructure (AMI) Project starting in 2017, which consisted of replacing all water meters two inches and under. Water meters typically have a lifespan of 15-20 years and ours were in need of replacement to ensure they were registering and recording water consumption accurately. In addition to replacing water meters, encoder radio transmitters (ERTs), commonly referred to as “endpoints” in the AMI industry, were attached to each meter to collect water consumption data and report it to our District office.

This new infrastructure has completely transformed the way that our agency interacts with metered water data and has improved our ability to respond to customer leaks. You may remember in the past we had meter readers in orange vests driving around town on scooters at the end of each month physically lifting water meter lids and reading the meter’s screen to allow us to complete our monthly billing. When this was our method of obtaining reads, we only received one data point every 30 days, unless we were called out to the meter to get an ending read if someone was moving out. This meant that if you had a toilet leak unbeknownst to you running 2 gallons per minute every minute that month, you would have used 86,400 extra gallons of water over 30 days that you might not know about until you received your water bill. Your water bill would have an additional 115 units of water tacked on to it resulting in hundreds of extra dollars owed. Our old infrastructure and system did not allow for staff or customers to see this information until it was far too late.

Now, our new equipment and its associated technology provide a tool for District staff and customers to catch these unexpected and wasteful continuous flows of water. Continuous flow alerts are sent when the meter reports that water has been flowing for 24 hours straight without a 15-minute period of no flow. Our conservation staff and field customer service representative help to monitor leak alerts using an online portal that pulls in water meter data 4 times each weekday. We hang tags and call customers if we are alerted of large continuous flow alerts. The great news is that this tool is not just available to us, but customers can quickly and easily set up an account at https://eyeonwater.com/signup to view the same information for their account. Customers can also set up leak alerts to be sent to their e-mail or cell phone after the system registers 24 hours of continuous flow.

The District has already used this tool to save hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and notify customers of excessive, atypical water consumption. One customer forgot to turn off a garden hose when watering a tree in their backyard and accidentally used 616 gallons per hour (over 10 gallons per minute) for approximately 43 hours, resulting in over 27,000 gallons of water used. This added an additional 37 units and over $100 to their monthly bill. Another customer had a large leak in their backyard’s irrigation system at their vacation property. Water was running continuously at around 2,292 gallons per hour (38.2 gallons per minute) and they used over 97,000 gallons over the course of 42 hours. Our field staff responded to the leak alert to find a completely flooded backyard and was able to shut the meter off on the customer side until repairs could be made and the owners could assess the damage. This equated to over 120 units of water accidentally being used and several hundred dollars added to their monthly bill. Imagine if a leak was inside their home and went undetected for an extended period. Unrepaired leaks like this have the potential to cause thousands of dollars of water damage to businesses and homes if no one is looking for a leak. Instances like this demonstrate that creating an account is not only important for saving water and monitoring your use, but also can be important for preventing costly damage.

We are excited to see many of our customers creating their own EyeOnWater accounts and setting up leak alerts so that they can be aware of abnormal water use and act quickly to prevent water waste. Creating an account is easy to do and only requires that you have your water account number found on your water bill. If you need assistance with creating an account at https://eyeonwater.com/signup, setting up alerts, or understanding the consumption data it displays you can call the office at 805-684-2816 or e-mail eyeonwaterinfo@cvwd.net.

In addition to providing the EyeOnWater tool, the District continues to offer rebates for residential and commercial customers for water conservation fixtures and appliances as well as rebates on WaterWise Landscape upgrades. If you are looking for a fall project, you can get some financial assistance with transforming your lawn and replacing it with native and low water use plants. E-mail conservation@cvwd.net for additional information. For District updates, please visit our website cvwd.net, follow us on twitter @CarpWater, or Carpinteria Valley Water District on Facebook and Nextdoor.