The City of Folsom’s water meter retrofit program is almost complete. Around 5,400 meters were to be installed and this week, only around 400 remain to be installed.
The retrofit crews are operating in the Historic District, handling around 20 per day. In areas with newer homes and newer infrastructure, they were completing around 40 per day, but the old galvanized pipes in the Historic District extend the time needed to complete each installation.
Because the City of Folsom receives water through a complex set of water rights and contractual agreements, the City was required to implement a meter retrofit program and transition from a flat rate payment to metered billing.
Opponents of the retrofit program were worried the City would eventually use the meters to selectively raise rates, disadvantaging people who had water rights agreements going back many years.
By State law, the City is required to have water metering services throughout the City by January 2013 and they must begin billing customers based on usage by March 2013.
One thing to check for, after the meter is installed and water reconnected, is to turn off all the water and see if the meter is ticking over. One home had that problem and the reason didn’t show up for some time. It was eventually discovered that the pressure of turning the water back on blew apart a join in an underground pipe at the back of the property.
