Manatee County replaces 50,000 water meters with smart upgrade. Here’s why
Manatee County Government is about one-third through a major upgrade to its water meter system that officials say will prevent leaks and simplify water use monitoring for residents and the county.
County officials first rolled out the WaterWise Manatee project in April last year, and it has two phases. The first phase involves replacing all Manatee County Utilities customers’ water meters with upgraded smart models. Phase two includes creating a new online portal for residents to see their water usage details.
So far, county staff have completed 50,000 of about 150,000 planned water meter upgrades, according to Billy Koch, the utilities project manager for the county.
Koch said the new meters will help prevent and catch leaks early on and allow the county to read meter data remotely.
How do WaterWise meters work?
Manatee County’s old meters required staff to drive through every neighborhood to collect water usage data. The new WaterWise Manatee meters use a private radio network to transmit a customer’s water usage information straight to the Manatee County Utilities Department.
According to Koch, full readings are transmitted to the county three times a day, allowing for more constant and accurate monitoring.
“Ideally, you’re going to identify leaks quicker,” Koch said. “Every single one of those 150,000 will have a set of eyes on them, so you’ll know exactly what’s going on in that box at that time.”
According to Koch, it’s too early to estimate how many leaks the new meters have prevented so far.
But Koch said that some leaks have been caught and addressed while county workers are making site visits to install the upgraded meters.
Meters will catch leaks and save money, county says
The upgraded meters come at no additional cost to residents. The county is spending about $80 million on the project, including labor and materials, according to Koch.
Koch said upgrading these meters will also cut back on labor costs.
“You’re not going to have someone driving around collecting those readings, because those readings will transfer. By moving over to these smarter meters, we are going to save the county money in the end,” Koch said.
New water use portal coming for residents
Sometime next year, the county will release a new online portal that Koch describes as a “one-stop shop” for residents to monitor and control their water use.
Koch said that the portal will have parameters that residents can set to keep their water usage within their budget. It will also further help to identify leaks, because a resident will be able to see if their water is running when it shouldn’t be.
“At 2 o’clock in the morning, if they’re not using (water) and they’ve got water running … they can look and see that water’s running and that they can potentially have a leak,” Koch said.
Where is Manatee County installing new meters?
Manatee County Government is splitting the upgrade process as evenly as possible between the county’s five commission districts, Koch said.
Most installations so far have been on single-family homes, but staff recently began upgrading apartment complexes and condominiums.
The project is on track for completion in late 2027, Koch said.
