Advancing Ordinances and the Public Water Utility

Recently, there has been an exciting expansion in the definition of “assets” for the public water utility that could encourage more ‘green’ infrastructure to be funded. This is being encouraged by the GASB 62 rule. This rule has been on the books for years, but clarifying the rule is giving it new life to the public water utility. This update was carried out by the Government Accounting Standards Board (GASB), which is a private-sector organization that establishes accounting and financial reporting standards within the United States. The clarified rule is relevant to public water utilities because assets must be utility-owned infrastructure to be supported by bonds.

Pressure Management and Advanced Metering Infrastructure

Managing pressure in a water distribution system is not an isolated objective. Pressure management works best as one element of a multi-faceted program that also includes acoustic leak detection and temperature monitoring. These sensor systems can become more impactful when interfaced or hosted on an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) system and approached as one component of a holistic asset management program. AMI can help reduce instances of undiscovered leaks through system-generated alerts and keep track of other important metrics and indicators, such as water temperature, which would compromise the integrity of the water pipes and cause new leaks.

Remote Disconnect Meters: A True Value-Add

Water meter technology has been advancing steadily, providing added value to water utilities in recent years. In 2012, Mueller Systems introduced a Remote Disconnect Meter (RDM) that helped to advance the industry and raised the bar in water…

Misconceptions On Advanced Metering (AMI)

Facebook has been in the news recently for customer privacy issues. Public concerns center around how their personal information is handled, collected, sold to third parties, and exposed to hacks or data leaks. Increasingly, there is discomfort…

Cybersecurity and the Modern Water Utility

Due to an increase in the real-life scenarios like this one, cybersecurity has been a thought on the minds of federal governments, the financial sector, and other organizations with a growing concern about managing access points. Increasingly, these security concerns are expanding to the infrastructure of nations like water utility infrastructure.

Water Leak Connection

Utilities across the globe are constantly looking for new ways to limit Non-Revenue Water Losses (NRWL) and more sustainably consume precious water resources. It is estimated that 6 billion gallons of drinking water is lost every day globally.…

Combatting Wasted Water: How Smart Water Meters Help Us Conserve

Some of us have very busy lives from the time the alarm goes off in the morning until the sun sets on our commute back to home. After a long day, what is one of those things that we look forward to doing? Taking a shower. As we all enjoy…

Clean Water With the Shake of a Bottle

  With today’s smart technology we are seeing our simple everyday items recreated into something we never thought possible. From our smart phones, to our smart cars, even our smart homes which are able to listen to any command and…

Managing Large Meter Asset Performance

While a majority of water meters for utilities generally serve residential customers, larger meters for commercial and industrial customers often provide the most significant amount of revenue for a utility.   Large meters are subjected…

Strategy Needed To Improve Water Infrastructure

  The National coverage of Flint Michigan’s water crisis has brought the fundamental infrastructure challenges of overburdened water facilities to the forefront of city council agendas nationwide, a change from its usual absence…