The City recently announced they had received at $75,000 grant from the Sustain and Manage America’s Resources for Tomorrow (WaterSMART) funds. The money will be used to upgrade more than 300 residential and commercial water meters that are currently manually read. The automatic meter reading system will begin to replace all 5000 meters in Boulder City.
The grant received covers 50% of the total cost of $150,000 for the upgrades. The City Utilities Fund will cover the other 50%. “This project will increase the reliability of water supplies and improve water management,” said Joseph Stubitz, the City’s new Utilities Director. “I truly appreciate the support we’ve received from City Council, US Representative Susie Lee and US Senator Jacky Rosen on requesting and obtaining this funding. I plan to explore. using additional grant funding for future phases of the replacement.”
“These meters will capture customers’ water usage data by radio transmission”, said Taylour Tedder, City Manager. “These meters will report more accurate water usage data, as well as save City staff time, since they will spend less time walking to homes and businesses to manually record and read meters.”
The drought that Southern Nevada is currently experiencing make projects like this a priority. “WaterSMART grants are essential to ensuring that states that are susceptible to drought, like Nevada, have the resources necessary to more efficiently conserve water,” said US Representative Lee. “I fought to increase funding for the WaterSMART program, and i am looking forward to seeing Boulder City use this grant to upgrade its water meters and safeguard our state’s precious water resources.
“I applaud the Bureau of Reclamation for funding these grants in Nevada and other western states in an effort to improve water efficiency and resiliency within communities,” said US Senator Jacky Rosen. “I will continue working to support programs like this one that will upgrade water use data and management, help cut down on water waste, and bolster conservation efforts in our state.”
The first phase of the project is expected to get underway soon.
