(2/1) At its January 11 meeting, the Town Council discussed the possibilities of implementing dual water meters for home irrigation purposes.

A request was made by resident Jason Vaughn to allow people to get a second water meter, or "sub-meter" installed for irrigation purposes.

The main water line to older houses comes with the water meter that is read quarterly by staff to determine how many gallons of water is used by each residence.

"It is my understanding that newer homes are built with the ability to have a line come off on the inside for irrigation purposes," Commissioner Joe Ritz said. "The separate line can be independently metered to show the amount of water used for outdoor purposes such as lawn and gardening watering."

Town Manager Willets however raised concerns about the effort that would be required to implement the dual metering system, saying that would force the town to subtract the sub meter off the main meter, calculate actual in-house, recalculate actual sewer usage (currently based on overall water use). It would require the staff "to do math", Willets said.

The town is always encouraging conservation and green efforts especially during the drought season and "I think if this is allowed it will encourage people to irrigate their lawns and water their grass and then you’re going to see more water usage go up during those times," Willets said.

Vaughn disagreed, saying a separate meter would merely be a way to save money on the bill.

"Because most of my bill is sewer," he said. "When I water my lawn, it goes right back into the ground. I just didn’t feel like I should have to pay sewage on water that’s not being retreated."

Town Planner Zach Gulden comment to the council, that the ‘submeters’ would require a new line to each house, which would count against the number of availed ‘taps’ the town has in reserve for new homes, and there by limit the town future development, got pushback from Commissioners Frank Davis and Joe Ritz.

"We are not talking about running a new water line to each house just so the people can water their lawns." Ritz said, "Instead, all that is being requested by Mr. Vaughn is to have a second meter on the line he uses to water outside. He shouldn’t have to pay for sewer fees whenever he waters his lawn. That’s all he asking. If we can save the residents of the town money, we should make an effort to do so."

Editors Note: Walkersville is in the process of using American Recovery Act funds to purchase and install state of the art water meters that can be read remotely. The new metering system utilizes a software program that performs all the ‘math’ at a click of a button.