OLDS — The Town of Olds is looking at replacing 640 water meters in the community, primarily in the southwest end of town, as part of an overall effort to curb water loss.
Infrastructure director Adrian Pedro said the area has been chosen because it’s one of the biggest areas of “concern” when it comes to water loss.
“We did want to consolidate our efforts on the leak detection side, the southwest corner of town being one of our biggest areas of concern, and so we chose to go with this layout,” he said, indicating that process could begin as soon as this first quarter of the year.
Work could range from repair to replacement.
Pedro said there are three “outstanding” water leaks in the community, two of which are in the southwest end of town. He said one is a “sizeable” leak by the south water reservoir.
Another aspect of the project is modifying two pumphouses that serve the community.
“Right now, there's essentially inadequate metering in those two locations,” Pedro said. “So we're actually replacing and installing new meters at appropriate spots so that we can actually reconcile what's coming in, what's going out, versus the utility billing volumes.
“Right now, there's a lot of discrepancy between all those numbers, and so we're just doing that analysis, and there's physical metering going in place to assist with that.”
He predicted that will likely be in place in February.
Pedro said as part of the meter replacement program, municipal officials will buy some meters.
Property owners in an “area of concern” could receive new meters. Those who aren’t in such an area will likely receive “old” meters that the Town of Olds still has in stock, until that stock is depleted.
