The City of Rialto has been awarded $6 million to replace more than 12,000 old water meters with state-of-the-art digital technology that will result in more accurate meter readings and better detect system leaks – saving time, money, and critical water resources.
Implementation of the new Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) will begin next year and be completed by August 2025. This past week, the California Department of Water Resources awarded the City $6 million through its Urban Community Drought Relief Program to implement the AMI program. Combined with a previously awarded $2 million grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, Rialto’s AMI program is now fully funded.
“We appreciate the state’s support in helping to bring this critical project to the finish line. AMI not only will help customers better understand and monitor their own water usage, it moves our community toward quantifiable and sustained water savings by reducing imported water demand,” said Mayor Deborah Robertson.
The benefits of AMI technology are many:
- Customers will be able to access near real-time water use data, adjust their usage and implement conservation measures as appropriate.
- The City will be able to more accurately and efficiently measure water usage and better identify system leaks, which, left undetected, can waste hundreds of thousands of gallons of water each day. For Rialto, the estimated savings as a result of leak detection alone is 343 acre-feet per year.
- The automated reader reads will take vehicles off the road and reduce carbon emissions.
The City currently relies on imported water from the State Water Project, which draws water from the San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta to replenish groundwater basins that supply Rialto’s potable water. Overall, the AMI project is expected to result in annual water savings of 1,545 acre-feet per year.
The AMI project is another example of Rialto’s leadership in water conservation and building a sustainable future. Robertson is a leading voice for the Wyland National Mayor’s Challenge, which encourages municipalities across the country to conserve water resources, and has helped organize educational programs for local students on the importance of conservation. The City has been recognized by the Southern California Association of Governments and others for its unique recycled water partnership with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) which will help connect Rialto’s wastewater plant with IEUA’s own recycled water distribution system, making more efficient use of the City’s excess recycled water.