LAYTON — Weber Basin Water Conservancy District may soon know how much water you’re using to keep your lawn green.
That’s because secondary water meters have already been placed in South Weber and in new housing developments elsewhere..
However, there are no plans to start strictly limiting water usage or imposing fines when a certain limit is surpassed.
Tage Flint, general manager of the Weber Basin Water Conservancy District, said the metering is intended as a conservation tool rather than money-maker.
Weber Basin supplies most of the secondary (outside) water used in the county, either providing it directly or to other water companies, such as Bountiful Irrigation or South Davis Water District.
“The technology did not exist until recently to provide a meter for secondary water without plugging the system, because of the debris in the water,” Flint said.
But that has changed with the development of new meters within the past five years.
Weber Basin has partnered with the federal Bureau of Reclamation in a study where more than 1,000 meters were installed this spring in yards in South Weber and Washington Terrace in Weber County.
“There are a lot of things to be learned,” Flint said of the test project. “Are those meters going to perform OK with a dirtier water source; is the data going to be accurate; and what is the behavior change of a customer who knows how much water they’re using?”
He emphasized metered customers are not being charged by the gallon for the water they use. However, they do receive a monthly report detailing usage.
Utah State University will be studying the behavior change aspect and how customers feel about metering, Flint said.
“We fully intend to go to meters (on a large scale) as our next big conservation plan,” he said.
In fact, all new hookups to Weber Basin’s secondary water system have been required to install a meter within the past two years. Usually that is done by a developer as part of a new subdivision.
That includes parts of Centerville, Farmington, Layton and West Bountiful, among other places.
For more information check out the Sept.20 edition of Davis Clipper.
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