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DeKalb County unveils new water meter program

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DeKalb County unveils new water meter program

DeKalb County Georgia. Source: Google Maps.
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DeKalb County Georgia. Source: Google Maps.

DeKalb County Georgia. Source: Google Maps.

DeKalb County says new Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) System transmitters will make water billing more accurate.

According to a press release from the county, the Department of Watershed Management will begin installing the transmitters on Jan. 11.

CEO Lee May said in the press release that, “This applied technology will improve customer service and support our commitment to improve billing accuracy, because it eliminates meter-reading errors.”

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Watershed Management Director Scott Towler said the meters will curb inaccurate bills and misreading of meters.

“The AMI system works like any other wireless device, using smart point units to regional collectors that transmit usage data. Simply put, by the end of the year we’ll have 40,000 water meters that will call in their own meter readings,” Towler said in the press release. “We were able to find natural locations for these regional collectors by placing receivers on existing water tanks and towers.”

The press release adds that the new system will improve leak detection and help identify abnormal spikes in usage.

County water bills have been a subject of dispute among residents who say they’ve been overcharged.

In 2014, the county began auditing more than 5,000 homes whose owners said they’d seen bills that showed a dramatic increase in consumption, according to 11 Alive. In one instance, a Dunwoody homeowner who had a $347 bill was able to get it reduced to $93 after she visited the visited the water department, 11 Alive reported.

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