Between now, and March of next year, there will be a flurry of activity in Weyburn, as the city works to replace the existing water meters in the community with new ones. The final vote approving the proposal from Corix, a firm out of Regina, for the replacement of the meters was held Monday night.

The final price tag for the project will be an initial $1,874,244. The city had budgeted $2 million for the project and then applied for grants with the federal and provincial governments to help offset the cost. The grant applications were approved, with the federal and provincial governments covering one-third of the final cost.

In addition to the replacement of the water meters, there will also be a project looking at identifying the lead water service pipes in the city that need to be replaced. The replacement of those pipes was also part of the grant application.

The water meters currently in use in the city are in need of replacing, due to age, council heard Monday. As the mechanical devices that measured the water flow aged, they began to lose accuracy, and as a result, in many cases, people were underpaying for the amount of water they were using.

Tom Williams is the acting engineer for the City of Weyburn. He explained during the meeting the new meters are a lot more accurate, and the city will have a better recovery on the water produced. The new meters, which report back to city hall using LTE technology, will also update the usage statistics quickly.

“People know exactly, to liter, what their water bill is going to be, cause they’ll be able to use an app online and check and see exactly what they have for water meter bills,” Williams explained after the meeting. This includes the ability for residents to use an iPhone and Android app to monitor usage, as well as receive alerts for irregular usage, such as leaving a tap on while going away for vacation.

The new technology is something Weyburn Mayor Marcel Roy says fits well with council’s vision for the city.

“A community that's looking to the future, and we’re always moving forward to the future, so as to be sustainable,” Roy said. “Sustainability means things that are durable, and not going to be costing our taxpayers, repeatedly and repeatedly, money."

The new meters could see some residents pay a little more initially for their monthly water bills, but this would not be due to any rate increases. As the older meters have lost their accuracy, some homes are having inaccurate numbers reporting back through the meters, resulting in some cases of bills being as much as 20 per cent lower than they should be. With more of the cost of producing water being recovered, though, it was revealed by Williams city council has already discussed one thing which should be good news for many residents.

“I suspect the city will reduce the water rates in the future, once they get an idea on the balance,” Williams said in a scrum with media after the meeting.

The deadline for the meters to be replaced is March of 2018. The tight deadline has to be met in order for the city to receive the grant through the Saskatchewan Clean Water and Wastewater funding.