New water meters coming to Folsom

The City of Folsom hired a contractor last week to help install thousands of water meters in new and old homes and businesses. The Folsom City Council approved a $282,000 contract April 14 with Phoenix Water Solutions for the city Water Meter and End Point Replacement Project. The City Utilities Department recently bought thousands of one-inch water meters for new Folsom homes and to replace older water meters that may be reaching the end of their serviceable life. Water meters have by law been installed on all new homes since 1992 with metered rate billing for all Folsom water customers beginning in 2013. The Folsom City Council approved an agreement in 2021 with Badger Meter Inc. for one-inch water meters to meet the demands of new residential construction and necessary residential replacements for older Folsom homes. The agreement authorized up to 2,250 one-inch water meters per year for five years ending in 2026. The City Council then agreed in 2024 to buy another 5,000 meters to proactively replace smaller meters that reached the end of theirserviceable life, staff explained. To help complete installation of the extra 5,000 while continuing regular operations, Folsom Utilities issued a request for proposals to contract out for the endpoint project. The project scope includes replacing about 2,950 smaller meters with city-supplied, one-inch Badger water meters, associated endpoints, customer notification and data collection. The agreement with Ensure Utility, doing business as Phoenix Water Solutions, is for $282,422.50 from the Folsom Water Operating Fund. Meanwhile, the Folsom Water Meter Division ensures all water customers have a meter to meet state requirements. City staff inspect, test, replace and maintain water meters in the city system. The agency also operates and maintains the automated water meter reading system to provide accurate data to the utility billing division. Folsom staff install, maintain and repair roughly 25,000 residential and commercial meters ranging from 5/8 to 12 inches. The city also maintains the fixed network meter reading system of 19 collectors and repeaters that gather reads from radios attached to eachmeter. That data is then downloaded into the water meter database used by multiple city departments, according to the website.