As far back as former Mayor David Ragucci it was one of the city’s best kept secrets that the some of the largest water users in the city were underreporting their water use because of defective water meters or had no meters at all.
Various efforts were made by different administrations to take a look at the situation.
However, it has taken years for the city to realize it has a water meter reading problem that concerns some of the city’s biggest industrial users of water.
The new commercial water meter program initiated by the DeMaria Administration will go a long way to correcting the situation, which, over the years, has cost Everett’s taxpayers millions in unreported or underreported water use.
The full installation of new commercial water meters will begin by the end of the summer.
A pilot program has already been put into service to test the new meters for durability and accuracy.
According to the mayor, there should be an increase in commercial water revenue as a result of the new meters being installed.
In the past, large commercial users were responsible for maintaining their own water meters.
This led to abuses in the system of reporting water use.
In some case use was underreported or not reported at all. In other cases, the water was coming in nicely but the meter wasn’t operating at all.
The city will take over ownership and maintenance of the new meters.
This assures the city and its taxpayers that true water usage figures will replace those that were often inaccurate.
This bit of conservation and oversight has taken the city almost a decade to finally put into use.
It has been a long time coming.
Our compliments to the mayor for finally committing to the new commercial water meter reading program.
It is a program that will produce millions more in previously lost water revenues.
And that’s the way to go.