Norman utilities receives $15M loan for water meters

Mindy Ragan Wood, The Norman Transcript, Okla.
Updated ·3 min read

Oct. 23—Norman residents could see a more sophisticated water metering system installed for their homes in the coming year after the city received a $15 million grant for automatic meter infrastructure from the Oklahoma Water Resources Board.

The loan will be in addition to a $2 million grant the city obtained from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the technology.

Automatic Meter Infrastructure reads water meters in real time, which allows city workers to detect leaks more quickly and reliably gauge water consumption, Norman Utilities Director Chris Mattingly has said.

The loan is on the City Council's Tuesday agenda when the council may choose to authorize it on the consent docket.

Utilities Engineer Nathan Madenwald said the department hopes to test its first round of AMIs in about a year. Madewalked added that the city is in the process of reviewing proposals for the upgrades.

"(It) will allow us to fully fund the project," Madenwald said, without the need for "general fund money."

The AMI upgrades to the system will be financed by the Oklahoma Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a prepared statement from OWRB read Wednesday.

Norman residents declined to approve a water rate increase in April 2021 which would have provided the extra money as collateral for a revenue bond to pay for AMI and water replacement lines.

The utilities department will eventually replace approximately 40,000 water meters and the electronics required to automatically transmit meter readings to the city across its service area, OWRB's statement reads.

Most of the meters are read manually, and a large portion of the utility's meters are nearing or past the expected life span.

"This project helps to meet Oklahoma's Water for 2060 goals by focusing on water conservation through a reduction of unintended flows to the wastewater treatment plant," the statement reads.

Joe Freeman, Chief of the OWRB's Financial Assistance Division, calculated that the Norman customers will save an estimated $1,442,900 over the life of the 17-year loan compared to traditional financing.

The loan will be secured with a lien on the revenues of the utility authority's water, sewer and a mortgage, the statement indicates.

The loan program is administered by the Oklahoma Water Resources Board with partial funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The Revolving Fund program has provided about $2.3 billion in water quality loans to provide communities the resources necessary to maintain and improve the infrastructure that protects our valuable water resources statewide.

According to the statement, the Oklahoma Water Resources Board has approved over $6 billion in loans and grants for water and wastewater infrastructure improvements throughout Oklahoma since 1983.

"We are grateful to State Legislators from the Norman metro area for their support of our financial assistance programs," said Julie Cunningham, Executive Director of the OWRB.

Mindy Wood covers City Hall news and notable court cases for The Transcript. Reach her at mwood@normantranscript.com or 405-416-4420.