Bonney Lake Water Meter Tests Reveal Some Innacuracies

BONNEY LAKE, WA - In response to citizen complaints about high water bills, Bonney Lake sent the meters of 43 resident for testing at an independent lab in Everett. None of the water meters were over-measuring water, the tests found, but some of the meters were under-measuring water, according to city officials.

Here are the results reported by the city:

• 3 meters out of the 43 meters tested failed to comply with the accuracy standards. All of these meters failed the test by under registering the flow of water. One was a Precision manual read meter with an overall accuracy was 92.46%, and two were Neptune touch read meters that registered 80.42% and 91.71% overall.-
• Of the 43 meters tested, 1 tested at 100% overall accuracy, 19 tested between 100-101.25% overall accuracy, and 23 tested between 80.42-100% overall accuracy. The Neptune radio read meters tested between 98.51% and 100.76% overall accuracy. The most accurate meters, as a group, were the Neptune radio read meters.-
• No meter proved to register more water (within the 98.5-101.5% accuracy tolerance range) than was actually put through it, which indicates that customers did in fact use the amount of water for which they were billed.

Last fall, some Bonney Lake water customers saw bills increase as much as 1,000 percent. Residents reported seeing bills that increased from an average of $140 per month to as much as $1,200 per month. The residents said that city officials told them the bills increased because of upgrades being made to water infrastructure.

The rates rose after the City Council approved Ordinances 1576 and 1577 at the May 23 Council meeting.

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• $1,200 Water Bills In Bonney Lake? Some See Big Increases: Report
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