Coppell Smart City Board recommends three-pronged smart water plan, asks council for follow-up cost estimates

The Smart City Board presented a condensed video and three recommendations for managing local water use to the Coppell City Council on April 28. Deepak, chair of the Smart City Board, and board members Lucia Rustan and Michael Cash said the package pairs residential incentives with large‑scale infrastructure monitoring and a resilience pilot.

The board outlined the three components: a Smart Irrigation rebate program offering households up to $150 to install smart controllers and sensors (the presentation cited a potential per‑household savings of up to 15,000 gallons annually); satellite‑based leak detection for treated water mains, referencing Garland’s published results (the presentation said Garland found 186 leaks and saved roughly 232 million gallons, with about $700,000 in annual savings); and a rainwater‑harvesting pilot the board described as a residential incentive that could capture as much as 40,000 gallons per year from a 2,000 ft² roof under favorable conditions.

Council members expressed broad interest but pressed for practical details. Council member Neville's said he supported the rebate idea and asked about pilot size (board proposed an initial residential pilot of about 100 homes). Council member Premkumar asked for security details and whether sensors rely on Wi‑Fi; presenters said many sensors are wired or use local telemetry options and that non‑Wi‑Fi implementations are available. Council member Matthew asked for explicit cost estimates and ROI to be provided to the city’s finance staff for consideration in the budget process.

Board members said the presentation and underlying slides with source data will be provided to staff and council; staff was asked to return with cost estimates, vendor information and potential pilot designs for council consideration.