A Place With No Meters

(Originally posted on waterefficiency.net)

By Elizabeth Cutright
Editor
Water Efficiency

My mother has a favorite saying, “We all make our own hell.” Of course, what she means is that we are all ultimately accountable for the situation we find ourselves in, and it’s up to each of us to find our own solutions. When it comes to water resource management, we’re lucky to have so many options, from infrastructure improvements to leak detection, to resource management via AMR/AMI and data integration. But what if those options weren’t available? Or, even worse, illegal? That’s the case in Fresno, CA, where water meters are banned by a city charter, and residential water use flows unfettered and unrecorded, propelling Fresno to the top of the urban water users in the country. In her article, “Without Meters, Fresno Water Beyond Measure” Sasha Khokha details how Fresno has become a water meter no-man’s land. Due in no small part to a history of cheap water provided by state and federal projects, citizens of this central valley community are adamant about their right to unmetered water.
In the 1990s, while head of the city’s water department, Martin McIntyre initially succeeded in implementing a voluntary residential meter program. Although 8,000 customers agreed to install meters on their property, a “vehement group of taxpayers convinced city leaders to incorporate a ‘no meter policy’ into Fresno’s city charter.” As a result, meters were actually banned for single-family residential units and McIntyre’s department was forced to remove every single one of those 8,000 meters.
But change is coming. California legislature now requires that any city using water from federal dams must install meters by 2013—this new law deftly trumping Fresno’s existing city charter. In the meantime, water will flow unchecked, and Fresno residents will most likely continue to use—on average—290 gallons per home. The city is not completely at the mercy of unrecorded water users. Fresno employs a small group of “conservation specialists” who check leaky sprinkler systems, malfunctioning showerheads, and, even, faulty toilets. These specialists come armed with wrenches and low-flow showerheads, and their efforts do help raise awareness of the need for water conservation.
Fresno is not alone. Many cities in and out of California are only partially metered. And while water meters (and their high-tech cousins AMR and AMI) are not a cure all, one wonders how we can have any effective demand reduction strategy when we cannot even measure how much water is being used.