West Virginia American Water plans to undertake a $17 million project to replace older water meters with new automated technology over the next five years.
In a news release Thursday, the water utility company stated the change would require mapping of its 171,000 meters that can be read by radio receivers installed in company vehicles.
"This project is meant to improve customer service," said Laura Jordan, West Virginia American Water's spokeswoman, adding that the plan will allow staff to focus on things like main replacement. "We will gain efficiency, but we don't plan to have this project eliminate services."
While the company believes the technology will help to cut down on the number of employees needed for meter work, members of Advocates for a Safe Water System, a group formed after the 2014 Freedom Industries leak, are critical of the plan, which they say is a misguided investment in infrastructure.
"It seems to not reflect the priorities of people who live here and are dealing with main breaks and who are wanting the company to replace mains at faster rates than once very 400 years," said Cathy Kunkel, with Advocates for a Safe Water System.
Kunkel referenced a staff report submitted to the PSC that shows American Water is on track regarding meter replacement, but lags in its main replacement schedule. At current replacement rates, PSC documents show it would take the water company 384 years to replace all of its water mains.
"It's definitely a concern for us that they are making that major capital investment in meter replacements instead of prioritizing main replacements," Kunkel said.
Jordan said the citizen group's criticisms of the meter replacements is misguided because West Virginia American Water spends far more money on main replacements than meter upgrades.
"All infrastructure replacement is important," Jordan said. "There is much more to our infrastructure than water lines."
But the company's plan to replace the older meters comes at a time when the Public Service Commission is set to review the company's request for a $35.4 million rate increase that will raise the average customer's bill by $139 per year.
In that case, the Advocates for a Safe Water System, the Kanawha County Commission, the City of Charleston and the Consumer Advocates Division have questioned the company's focus on main replacement.
Consumer Advocates Division director Jackie Roberts said she is "not happy" about the company's plan, adding main replacement should come before other infrastructure.
"The Consumer Advocates Division wants the company to focus on the critical issues before it which is repairing and replacing its water lines before it turns to meter replacement," Roberts said.
Charleston City Councilwoman Karan Ireland said Thursday she and advocates "get dozens of complaints a week" about the water company's service "and never is it about water meter replacements or meter problems.
"We have people in Charleston who are suffering outages, damage to their homes. We've had road problems, school closings and none of that has been due to problems with meters," Ireland said.
When asked what those issues relate to, she responded, "Main breaks. Leaks."
"That's where we'd like to see announcements about infrastructure investments," Ireland said.
Ireland also campaigned for greater protections for water systems following the 2014 chemical leak.
Earlier this week, the PSC staff asked the PSC to approve a separate surcharge for the water company that would be put toward main replacements throughout the company's system, which has been shown to have serious problems.
In quarterly reports submitted to the PSC, data shows that West Virginia American Water's system loses roughly 22.5 percent of the water it treats before it actually gets to customers homes, such as the gallons lost in June when a water main in Dunbar broke repeatedly.
Jordan points out that the company is required by the PSC to replace customer meters once every 15 years or 1 million gallons, which ever comes first. She said the mapping on meters is also important in helping technicians find the meters.
"This is just accelerating this replacement to a more compact time frame," Jordan said. "It's getting up with the times."
Reach Rachel Molenda at rachel.molenda@wvgazette.com, 304-348-5102 or follow @rachelmolenda on Twitter.
Reach Andrew Brown at andrew.brown@wvgazette.com, 304-348-4814, or follow @Andy_Ed_Brown on Twitter.