The City of Levelland Water Meter Replacement Project will start with a limited number of meters April 3, with full deployment on April 7.
Residential meter replacements will typically take less than 30 minutes at each location, during which the water to the residents home or facility will be shut off. The Ameresco team will not have to enter inside the home. Also, all commercial accounts will be scheduled individually with associated owners.
Water meter exchanges will take place between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday.
Crews will show up and knock on residence’s doors.
Whether an individual answers or not, they will check to see if the water meter is running, and if not, crews will change out the meter.
If the meter is running, they will not change out the meter because that will mean there is water on inside the house. If the water meter is not accessible, (behind a locked gate or inaccessible in some other way) they will not change out the meter.
Either way, the crews will leave a door hanger telling the resident that they either did or did not complete the job and will give further instructions.
Steps leading to the project:
The City entered into a Project Development Agreement with Ameresco in Feb. 2024 to conduct an Investment Grade Audit of the city’s water system.
Ameresco presented its findings and recommendations to the City Council at the Sept. 9, 2024, special meeting.
The Project Development Agreement with Ameresco was approved by the Council on Oct. 21, 2024.
The Council approved Resolution 2024-40, approving and authorizing publication and posting of notice of intention to issue certificates of obligation for the purpose of paying contractual obligations to be incurred for the construction of public works, which included: construction, acquiring, purchasing, renovation, enlarging, equipping and improving the water system properties and facilities, including water meter additions and replacements and professional services rendered in relation to such projects and the financing, during the Dec. 16, 2024, regular meeting.
The Council approved the first payment request for Amersco in the amount of $283,040.58 in the January 6, regular meeting. The first payment application from the company and the amount was to be reimbursed to the city upon the issuance of CO’s (Certificates of Obligation) that the Council would consider in the February regular meeting. Once the CO’s are authorized, it will take 30 to 45 days for the city to receive the funds.
At the Feb. 17 regular meeting, it was detailed that the project is going to be financed by savings and new revenue that is generated from the replaced water meters. With the potential that the City was losing revenue from that sample, the hope is to regain that revenue and utilize it to pay back the CO amount.
Robert Spears, a representative from Hilltop Securities attended the meeting to discuss the Certificate of Obligations (CO) sale and the rate of issuances for the CO’s. Spears explained that on Dec. 16, the Council adopted the Notice of Intent to issue the max amount which was $5,975,000. As of the Feb. 17 meeting, the final number that was received was $5.2 million.
Also, the group was originally estimating an average annual debt service of $530,000 and the final pricing numbers came out to $513,000. The interest rate was predicted around 4.25% while the final interest rate came out to 3.99% The Council unanimously approved the item Notice of Intent. Moving forward in the meeting, Council approved a [second] payment request from Amersco in the amount of $1,708,710.66 for the water meter project pursuant to the contract approved between the City and Amersco in Oct. 2024.
During the meeting, the Council was informed that as of Feb. 12, the funds in their City Bank account totalled roughly $2.4 million. By the end of Feb. City Staff anticipated the account to reach roughly $3 million.
It was explained that the amount will be reimbursed to the city upon the issuance of Certificates of Obligations that the Council considered during the meeting. Also, once the CO’s were authorized, it would take 3045 days for the city to receive the funds. This would allow for a reimbursement provision for whatever dollars were spent towards the project that the City can pay it back once they received the bond funds.
In the March 17 regular meeting, the Council approved the third payment application in the amount of $1,536,463.31. The Council was informed that the CO’s that the group recently authorized would be delivered around March 20 and the payment would come from those dollars.
Scope of the project:
In a special meeting in Feb. 2024, Ameresco’s Chad Nobles explained to the Council the entire process in hopes of increasing operational efficiency throughout the city and reducing some of the cost as it relates to water.
Nobles stated some of the meters in the system are past their useful life. A lot of meters that are being used currently are mechanical meters that have a device that spins inside of them.
As those components age, they begin to typically slow down. That means the city does not collect the revenue it’s actually measuring. When the water is not measured through that meter, the city is losing money associated with that. Nobles explained that while some meters were not only past their useful life, the discovery that the technology within was failing resulted in finding a way to resolve that issue. As a result, that is where Ameresco came on board.
The process began with the city hiring the business through a cooperative purchasing agreement. Ameresco was qualified through a competitive bid process and was awarded the project. From that point, the Project Development Agreement was approved.
In February 2024, Ameresco conducted meter testing, surveying meter boxes and examining all of the large meters.
From there, a scope of work was put together that consisted of material and looked at different technologies. Once that was put together, Ameresco talked to city staff about those technologies and conducted an evaluation of that process. The scope included a meter count of 6,349. Of that total, 5,282 have a meter size of 5/8 and ¾ inches, 794 meters are one inch, 82 are oneand- half inches, 172 are two inches, seven are three inches, seven are four inches and five are six inches.
The additional scope items included the integration of all data points, pictures of each meter install (before and after), sub-meter accuracy GPS coordinates, Lead and Copper Survey, ancillary materials, replacement boxes (if necessary), composite lids and the addition of a customer portal.
It was noted that a required step in the process had been completed before the special meeting which was a third-party engineering review. This meant somebody that is not associated with the city or not associated with Ameresco looked at calculations and the big picture of what the project entailed.
The company tested roughly 65 to 68 meters that were out in the field. The crews pulled the meter out of the ground and sent it to a third party testing lab to be put through its paces. Additionally, the crew went and randomly surveyed approximately another 100-plus water meters around town.
In regard to the test results, the meters that were pulled out of the ground, tested and were physically looked at and compared in a third-party testing atmosphere. It was also mentioned that the meters were tested according to the American Water Works Association (AWWA) standards.
Nobles explained the AWWA standards consist of testing for low flow, medium flow and a high flow which is done to get a range.
With that standard in place, an average household should consist of about 15% of the water going to the low flow, about 70% should go through the medium flow and 15% should go through the high flow. When the residential meters were looked at, the results show the low flow side tested at 80% accurate.
Nobles added there were 10 meters that actually tested zero in all three categories, calling it “scary” meaning those meters weren’t reading as they were still not showing consumption in the database.
With those results presented, Nobles explained that it is costing the city money to produce and give water to the citizens, but the city is not necessarily collecting. From an operational efficiency perspective, the project would reduce meter reading costs, reduce maintenance costs and quicken the response to citizen inquiries.
A perk for citizens is that they will be able to monitor their water usage through the customer portal. Additional highlights for the average citizen is more transparency with the aid of the portal along with fair and accurate billing. In terms of warranty, the meters have a 20-year warranty with 10years full and 10-years prorated.
With local Government Code 302, Nobles and his team have to guarantee meter accuracy and that guarantee is over the term of the project. To prove that guarantee, they will return to the area and test the meters. Currently, legislation says the meters must be tested at least one time in the first five years.