This Thurston County city has a water meter problem. Is it affecting your bill?

The Lacey City Council agreed recently to move forward on a spending plan to address its water meter problem.

It’s not a small problem, City Manager Rick Walk told the council on Nov. 18. About 10,000 water meters in its system — nearly one-third of the total — need to be replaced, and about 3,000 of them are already having problems transmitting data, so they need to be read manually, he said.

On top of that, about 100 meters are failing every month — either the meter itself or the technology tied to it, according to city council records.

“In the past, we have been working on periodically trying to replace those meters with existing staffing, but we’ve gotten to the point with workload and demands related to our utility billing program that we really need to take a look at a more deliberate and focused effort to get those meters replaced, to help out with the day-to-day operations and efficiencies,” Walk said.

Some historical perspective was provided at the meeting. The current batch of meters was installed in 2006. The meter itself has a lifespan of about 20 years, while the transmitting technology associated with the meter lasts about 15 years.

When a meter starts to fail it begins to slow down and report lower than typical water use, said public works operations manager Scott Devlin.

“We’re not reading the right amount of water usage,” he said, adding that results in less revenue to the city.

How much revenue has the city missed out on because of the problem?

City Finance Director Troy Woo told The Olympian he couldn’t quantify the losses but thought it was “pretty minor” overall.

The city works hard to get accurate information, but staff also can’t manually check 3,000 meters a month — they read about half that number in one month — so the city, under Lacey Municipal Code, is allowed to estimate a bill in one month, then reconcile that bill the following month once the meter has been read, Woo said.

However, customers aren’t always happy with that approach, Lacey Mayor Andy Ryder said at the council meeting.

“We have to figure this out because the amount of complaints that we’ve been receiving has been somewhat unprecedented, but it directly relates to this (water meter) issue,” Ryder said.

The Olympian wasn’t immediately able to reach Woo Friday to ask a follow-up question about what this billing discrepancy looks like for the average resident.

What will the city do?

The council was presented with three options: work with the existing water meter provider to fix the problem at a cost of $4.3 million, work in combination with that business and an independent contractor for $3.9 million, or allow the city to do the work for a lot less.

Under that option the city would hire for two years three limited-term employees — two technicians and an administrative position — plus spend money on a vehicle, tools, uniforms, office equipment and telecommunication devices for a cost of about $1.2 million.

Mayor Ryder and the other council members endorsed that approach on Tuesday, although an official vote will come later.

“So, you know, I 100% support this solution. I think it’s long overdue. We probably waited too long to get here to tell you the truth,” Ryder said.

Council member Robin Vazquez questioned whether the limited-term employees can get the job done.

“Do we think that we will be able to replace all the meters that need replacing?” she asked.

Public works operations manager Devlin said he has crunched the numbers — two techs fixing eight meters apiece per day for 20 working days a month — and thinks it will take a “year to a year and three-quarters” to get it all done.

This story was originally published November 23, 2025 at 5:00 AM.