Some KC Water meters tested faulty, but they were put in homes anyway

Kansas City’s auditor found that nearly one-fifth of new water meters tested last fiscal year by KC Water failed accuracy testing but were installed in individuals’ homes anyway.

The audit, released Wednesday, urged the city’s water department, KC Water, to stop installing faulty meters and test a random sample large enough to represent the accuracy of each shipment of meters. It noted faulty meters can misread a home’s water usage and result in inaccurate water bills.

The department’s response?

It says it will test meters for training purposes, but won’t test enough meters to check for accuracy.

“Our position is the entire batch has already been tested by the manufacturer and passed for accuracy,” the department’s written response says.

But those meters tested and certified by the manufacturer have proven faulty before. The audit said that last fiscal year, 47 out of 246 new meters, about 19 percent, failed accuracy testing but were installed. Most were “over-registering the amount of water that ran through the meter,” meaning they would inflate customers’ water usage and potentially over-bill them.

Those meters will be removed by KC Water, and the department pledged to no longer install meters it knows are faulty. But Douglas Jones, the city’s auditor, said randomly testing a statistically significant sample of the new meters is how the city would ensure it is accurately charging residents for their water usage.

“That’s where the opportunity for improvement was, and when you read their response, they said, ‘Well, we’re basically going to stop testing those meters for the purpose of checking on the manufacturer,’” Jones said, adding that the manufacturer is not an independent third-party and has a vested interest in selling to the city.

Jones added: “To us, that’s not a good policy.”

The audit also found the department needed a strategy for replacing aging meters, which can become less accurate over time, and that the department was not using the recommended form of testing.

In a meeting of the City Council’s Finance & Governance Committee on Wednesday, water director Terry Leeds reiterated that the manufacturer of the meters certifies them. He said some peer cities randomly test the new meters they get from manufacturers, but others don’t.

Leeds argued that deciding whether to spend money to test enough meters to ensure their accuracy is a business decision for KC Water.

“We agreed that we would do some sample testing,” Leeds said. “What we haven’t agreed with (is) that we would do a statistically accurate number of tests.”

Councilman Scott Wagner, who chairs the committee, said he was surprised “the attitude that we have related to the guarantees from the manufacturer of the meters.”

“I think it would make some sense for us to actually test them ourselves when we get them because clearly — based on what was said today, once that meter is installed, that’s it,” Wagner said. “There’s no real warranty that goes with it.”

The audit comes on the heels of several years of rate increases necessary to help the city comply with an Environmental Protection Agency consent decree that requires it to replace aging pipes across the city. The city budgeted for smaller water and sewer rate increases this year as it works with the EPA to restructure that decree.

Faulty meter readings could result in inflated bills for residents or low bills that don’t cover the costs the department incurs to provide water.

A retired resident sued the city last year over what he said were inaccurate water bills, but his case was dismissed.

The auditor will receive a report in six months from the department’s management on its implementation of the recommendations.

This story was originally published May 22, 2019 at 2:23 PM.