County to Replace 102,000 Water Meters

DECATUR, Ga.— DeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond has developed a plan to replace more than 100,000 water meters at risk of failure.

According to a task force led by CEO Thurmond, 55 percent of the county’s 184,000 small meters, or 102,000, are at risk of failure and may contribute to inaccurate water bills.

“Implementing a large-scale meter replacement program will take time, but is a substantial step to restore faith in the accuracy of meter readings and water bills,” CEO Thurmond said.

CEO Thurmond’s plan includes replacing 62,000 small meters that are outside of their 15-year life cycle and 40,000 manufactured before 2014 that have potential factory defects.

After these meters are replaced, the county will implement systematic maintenance of all meters at a rate of approximately 7 percent per year based on the age of the meter.

“This will ensure that we never have deficient, out-of-life-cycle water meters again,” CEO Thurmond said.

CEO Thurmond’s plan calls for the replacement of aging meters to begin in the fourth quarter of 2017, while defective meters will be replaced on an ongoing basis.

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