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Jim Stinson, general manager of The Woodlands Water Agency, said workers have been kept busy with hundreds of calls for service in regard to water problems. He said the agency responded to 1,950 calls for service on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday which is much higher than the average of 190 service calls per day for staff.

Installation of new smart water meters in The Woodlands will started on Aug. 24. The meters, called the Neptune MACH 10 Ultrasonic Residential Water Meter, are manufactured by a company called WaterWorld. The ongoing smart water meter installation program in The Woodlands has lead to irritation among some residents after cellular transmitter poles were erected near their homes with no notice.

Residents in The Woodlands will soon begin the transition to the future as installation of new, ultrasonic “smart” water meters begins Aug. 24, a project that will see every home and business receive a new meter over an 18 month period extending into 2021.

Jim Stinson, general manager of Woodlands Water, said the project may be starting on Aug. 24, but has been in the planning stages for more than five years as officials with the entity — which handles all drinking water and sewage issues on behalf of 10 municipal utility districts in The Woodlands — pondered how to cope with aging mechanical water meters.

“It is a big step for operational efficiency and for the customers. Customers I think will appreciate the ability to watch their water usage on an hourly basis and make adjustments to their water bill,” he said.

Installation will be phased across community and be done by MUD areas.

The effort will begin in the Village of College Park, Montgomery County MUD 39, followed by installation in MUD No. 1, Panther Creek and a portion of Grogan’s Mill; MUD No. 7, Cochran’s Crossing and areas of Panther Creek; MUD No. 67, another area in Cochran’s Crossing; MUD No. 60, Indian Springs and areas of Sterling Ridge; MUD No. 47, the Village of Alden Bridge No. 46, Grogan’s Mill and a part of Alden Bridge; the Metro MUD in Town Center area; MUD No. 6, mainly Grogan’s Mill; and MUD No. 36, also serving parts of Grogan’s Mill.

Related: Woodlands MUD entity changes name to Woodlands Water Agency

Stinson said the workers doing the installation will not enter any homes or businesses, but they will need to access back yard areas or possibly closed fence areas to do the work. The company, called Ameresco, will place informational door hangers on door knobs in the affected neighborhoods roughly three to five days before the firm’s installation crews are scheduled to arrive.

The workers will only do the installations between the hours of 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, and they will be wearing clearly marked bright yellow vests with Ameresco on them and also have photographic identity cards visible around their neck. Stinson stressed no workers will enter homes and residents should not allow anyone inside who claims they need interior access.

“First of all, they will knock on the door to inform the homeowner that (water) service will be interrupted for a few minutes, and we’ll make sure it is convenient for the homeowner. If it is not, we will schedule a different time,” Stinson explained of the process. “In some cases, they will be replacing the meter box in the front yard. In other cases, they will only replacing the meter (alone). If the meter box is damaged, they will replace it. two new ultrasonic meters with no moving parts and have an accuracy of 98 percent or greater for 20 years.”

Stinson also said residents with dogs or other pets will be required to secure all animals inside a home and not in the yard.

“The workers will come to the front door, have a yellow vest with clearly spelled ‘Ameresco’ on it and will show a photo ID,” he stressed. ‘We’ve developed the door hanger, and if residents have any questions, they can contact (Woodlands Water) and we’ve developed a very interactive website where (residents) can monitor progress.”

The new ultrasonic meters have no moving parts, unlike traditional water meters, Stinson said. The meters, called the Neptune MACH 10 Ultrasonic Residential Water Meter, are manufactured by a company called Neptune Technology Group. The cost of the project, he addded, is not an issue because the replacement of old meters had already been budgeted into Woodlands Water expenditures because replacing the meters is a regular task.

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“The mechanical meters we had in place were beginning to lose their service life. As they get older, the meters register ‘slow.’ As a customer uses more water over the years, the meters begin to register ‘slow.’ We were either going to have to replace the meters we had in the greound or do an upgrade to the meter system. We thought this was the right time to look at an upgrade,” Stinson added. “We had confidence (the new meter) provides an accurate (water usage) read for all residents and would be reliable for 20 years or more. We went through a number of reviews of meter system options and ended up selecting Ameresco as our vendor, contractor and the Neptune system.”

A benefit of the new smart meters is that physical readings of meters will no longer be necessary, resulting in, Stinson added, the $420,000 a year in savings to Woodlands Water. The physical readings by workers are not done by local employees, but have been outsourced for decades to various firms in the Houston region. Although the new meters mean no people will be required to read water meters, no one will lose jobs because Woodlands Water does not employ that type of staff.

“The savings will be, we will be able to eliminate the meter reading costs. We outsource that effort to a third party and that is expense is $420,000 per year,” he noted. “It will reduce our overhead on contracted labor.”

Residents will see enhanced features with the new smart meters, including the ability to access their water meter readings and bills via a smart phone app or online at the Woodlands Water website. Other cool aspects of the new meters, Stinson added, including being able to control water flows via an app in the event a homeowner may want to not exceed a certain monetary amount for their monthly bill. Warning alerts can be set up so when a threshhold of water usage is near, a homeowner can — for example — reduce water usage or stop irrigation.

“We look forward to not having a meter in the ground we need to worry about replacing for 20 years,’ Stinson added. “The older meters run slow, and we test them regularly. They under-register (usage). If (customers) happen to see their bills increase a bit, they may have been under-billed for their water.”

Regional Editor Jeff Forward works in The Woodlands newsroom and manages the twice-weekly The Woodlands Villager. A 1997 graduate of The Ohio State University, Forward has worked as a reporter and editor at newspapers in California, Pennsylvania, Iowa, Texas, Indiana and Ohio during his career. While working in Iowa and California, Forward was honored with awards for breaking news reporting, breaking news photography and special sections on education and the Hmong people. Forward was the lead editor on the nationally and state recognized series "Mental Health: Iowa's Crisis," which won awards from the Iowa Newspaper Association, the Inland Press Association among others.