HOUSTON — The Houston Public Works Department said it was outpacing its projected pace of replacing faulting devices meant to give residents an accurate reading of their water usage.
Officials spoke during Wednesday’s Service Delivery Council Committee meeting.
HPW said in the first three weeks of April, they replaced 8,758 remote read devices – ahead of their target goal of 7,450 for that time period.
The city is attempting to replace about 125,000 of the devices which are the main culprit in giving inaccurate readings of residents’ water usage and, therefore, their water bills.
Department leaders said while being ahead of schedule is good, it’s also necessary as a likely challenging summer approaches.
"We're pacing ahead of schedule, but we also know that we need to make sure that we have some weeks where we're ahead of schedule because, summer weather can be unpredictable, particularly as we get into hurricane season," HPW Chief Operating Officer Randy Macchi told councilmembers. "So we're trying to be as expeditious as we possibly can."
Macchi also said customers can expect more changes, including improved customer service and a simpler bill starting in May that will also include new colors as a visual cue of changes as well as pamphlets to inform and educate customers of the changes.
Single-family residences will be charged on a 3,000-gallon average water usage until their remote read devices are fixed. The first time this will be reflected will be in bills received in May.