Augusta City outlines five-year, $35 million plan to replace water meters with cellular AMI; lead-line inspections to be paired with program

Augusta City's Utilities Department on Thursday presented a multi-year program to upgrade roughly 70,000 water meters to cellular advanced metering infrastructure (AMI), a project the department described as a five-year effort with an estimated $35 million cost and substantial customer-facing benefits.

Director Bines and AMI manager Dean Meyer said the city is replacing mechanical meters (some more than 20 years old, and some nearly 90 years old) with ultrasonic, self-contained meters that have no moving parts and a cellular endpoint that uploads hourly data. "We're replacing all of the water meters in the city of Augusta with AMI," the director said, noting the technology shift from fixed-base radio to cellular endpoints that can use multiple carriers for reliability.

Key details staff provided:
- Scale and timeline: roughly 70,000 meters replaced over five years (about 15,000 meters per year); the department reported roughly 4,000 meters already installed.
- Cost and delivery: department stated the project budget at about $35 million and said in-house crews would install the majority of small meters; larger commercial meters or vault work will be outsourced.
- Technical features: ultrasonic meters with a 20-year warranted accuracy; cellular endpoint uploads hourly reads (multiple uploads per day) and stores approximately 40 days of data; a customer portal will allow residents to see near-real-time usage.
- Customer benefits: earlier leak detection and notification to reduce surprise large bills; improved billing accuracy because older meters can read low as they age; conversion of meter readers to meter technicians with new training.
- Lead-service-line work: the meter-replacement program will include inspection of service lines that connect to meters to comply with a federal rule; staff noted the city has a compliance timeframe tied to that rule (described in the meeting as a deadline "next November").
- Remote shutoff: staff said the city did not adopt remote shutoff hardware at this time because of higher cost and extra battery/installation requirements; the department may revisit remote shutoff if demand warrants.

Director Bines said the program will include public outreach (website links, bill inserts and media partners), a fee schedule proposal for 2027 to charge repeat intentional-damage costs to property owners, and additional meter-test equipment so customers can request accuracy testing.

Why it matters: Upgrading meters is intended to reduce unbilled water loss, give customers earlier warning of leaks and modernize operations. The lead-service-line inspections tied to meter work also respond to federal expectations about identifying and removing lead where present.

What happens next: The Utilities Department will proceed with the installation schedule, public outreach, and development of a fee schedule; the commission received the information and asked staff to coordinate communications with the administrator's office.