METERAGE
Superintendent John King, of Lancaster, O., has issued a warning to the effect that any rate consumer that lets his water run during the winter months to prevent the faucet from Feezing will be ordered to install a meter and if one is not put in immediately the water will be turned off.
In a statement by Commissioner of Public Works Greenalch, of Albany, N. Y., last week, he strongly urged the metering of all the services. The daily per capita water consumption, 242 gallons, shows an enormous waste, said the commissioner. At present in the city of Albany, there are 6,560 meters in place, over 800 of this number being set in the past year. Every new service is equipped with a meter. “On July 11, 1912,” said Commissioner Greenalch, “the common council, passed an ordinance requiring that all new services be metered. This has been done, but the great need to stop the shameful waste is to meter the old services. We have been spending about $10,000 a year to meter the services. That is all the money available for this use. We ought to get through a bond issue of at least $200,000 to carry the work on. We have a water system in Albany large enough for a city twice its size if everyone used a reasonable amount of water. The waste is altogether too large. The high per capita consumption is not due to underground leaks in the water, it is due entirely to waste. I have advocated the metering of the entire system for the past two or three years.”
