LCWSA: Faster internet to aid meter project

Published 6:00 am Friday, March 24, 2017

A decision Thursday by the Limestone County Water & Sewer Authority board to increase its internet capacity should benefit an ongoing meter replacement initiative.

New customer meters being installed now transmit readings electronically. Those readings are then transmitted to an external server. LCWSA CEO Daryl Williamson told the board the internet signal from the headquarters on U.S. 72 isn’t fast enough to send the data.

The utility has a 20 megabytes-per-second speed, but two circuits split the signal. Five megabytes are sent to the south treatment plant, while another five are sent to the customer service building on Jefferson Street in Athens.

“We’re being bandwidth constrained,” he said during Thursday’s regularly scheduled meeting.

The board voted to increase its bandwidth to 50 megabytes-per-second at a cost of $1,667.58. Board Chairman Jim Moffatt recused himself from the discussion and vote because of a family connection with EarthLink, the authority’s data provider.

In other meter replacement news, Williamson said about 13,500 of the total 22,000 electronic meters had been installed. He told the board last month a number of meters with duplicate serial numbers had been discovered. That number turned out to be 120, but 69 of those have been found.

Elsewhere, Limestone County Commissioner Ben Harrison asked the authority to conduct a leak detection sweep of Parker and Baker Hill roads. He said once the roads are paved, there would not be any open cutting for utilities.

In other business, the LCWSA board:

• Agreed to refurbish a pump at the north treatment plant. An operator told Williamson the pump had been damaged from silt caused by the drought. Rebuilding the pump was recommended to provide a level of redundancy, especially with peak water season approaching. The cost would be $14,510.