Water Meter Information

Measuring your water use with source and service meters is fundamental to helping you develop a successful WUE program. Meters provide the information necessary to calculate accurate distribution system leakage (DSL). They also provide useful information to evaluate the effectiveness of your WUE program. 

All Municipal Water Systems (MWS) must have source meters and service meters for each customer and clustered entity. All new services must be metered at the time of connection.

Meters provide the information you need to evaluate water use and leakage and help prioritize your WUE efforts. If you are not required to install consumption meters, you should consider installing zone meters to isolate sections of the distribution system. Zone meters help identify and prioritize areas with the most leaks and evaluate how to proceed with a water loss control action plan. 

Installing meters makes economic sense!

Help communities understand that meters are a good idea. Meters accurately identify water loss within the distribution system. Lost water has a value. Consider the cost to pump, treat, store, and distribute the water. Add up these factors and you’ll find that fixing leaks makes economic sense. The best way to accurately determine water loss is to install service meters to measure water consumption.

If you don’t have service meters installed on all existing direct service connections and intertie connections, you must submit a meter installation schedule, implement activities to minimize leakage, and report the status of installing meters and minimizing leakage in your annual WUE report and in any planning document you submit for approval. See Section 2.6 of the WUE Guidebook 331-375 (PDF) for more detailed information.

The state does not dictate water rates. Setting rates is the responsibility of the elected governing board, governing body, owner, or as authorized by the Washington State Utilities and Transportation Commission. You can view meter installation as a source of revenue if you base your rates on actual consumption (the more water a homeowner uses, the more they pay). It’s up to the water system owner or manager to determine how they want to use the meters as a way to pay for needed improvements, maintenance or operation of the water system.

You must select, install, operate, and maintain your meters using accepted industry standards and as required by the manufacturer (WAC 246-290-496(3)).

We recommend that a qualified professional install your service meters in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions. If you install your water system’s service meters take extra care not to disturb the distribution system. Contamination of the distribution system can occur when water lines are disrupted, which compromises your ability to provide safe and reliable water.

You must install and calibrate meters correctly to be accurate. The accuracy of your meters diminishes over time and older meters may require calibration or replacement. Inaccurate meters result in lost revenue. Even a few percentage points of inaccurate measurements on a larger meter can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars every month.

How Water Meters Benefit Consumers

  • A household will know how much water they consume and use that information to manage their water use.
  • Homeowners can prevent damage to their property. Meters provide answers to operators: when you're away from your home a water operator can read the meter to find out if you have a broken water line and turn your water off before the leak does any more damage to your property.
  • Consumers might pay less for water in the future. If water rates are based on consumption (not a flat rate) you may end up saving more money if you use less water.

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