Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Yorkville to conduct customer billing audit as part of Lake Michigan water project

Transcript

Yorkville to conduct customer billing audit as part of Lake Michigan water project · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Yorkville to conduct customer billing audit as part of Lake
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Michigan water project. Written by Joey Weslow, this article is
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: being read by an automated voice brought to you by
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: ever Litt as part of the around two hundred and
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: twenty four to four million dollar Lake Michigan water sourcing project.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: The Illinois Department of Natural Resources requires cities receiving the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: water to reduce non revenue water loss below ten percent.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: To help meet this standard, the City of Yorkville has
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: been replacing older water mains across town and installing more
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: accurate water meters in homes and businesses throughout the city.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: While water leaks are the most common form of water loss,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the a new audit will focus on billing inaccuracies, data errors,
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: or system configuration issues that also contribute to the city's
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: reported water loss percentage. According to city documents, city council
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: approved a sixty thousand, eighty nine dollars contract with EMA Inc.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: To conduct a customer Information System billing audit. The city
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: hopes the audit helps reduce water that is delivered but
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: lost because it is not accurately measured. As part of
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: the agreement, the city is finalizing a non disclosure agreement
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: to protect customer's utility account information and the city's data
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: that is required during the audit. The city will first
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: receive Lake Michigan water down the pipeline by the summer
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: of twenty twenty eight. The change was necessary because the
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: region's booming population is unsustainably tapping into the long used
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: underground aquifer. As the city prepares for its transition to
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Lake Michigan as its long term water source, ensuring the
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: reliability and accuracy of utility billing and consumption data is
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: increasingly important. Rob Frederickson, the city's finance director, said in
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: city documents. If left unaddressed, these issues can lead to
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: understated consumption, lost revenue, and an inflated non revenue water
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: loss percentage. Examples of potential issues the city hopes to
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: uncover include mismatches between water meters, reeds, and billing accounts.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: The audit is also looking for abandoned meters in unbuilt
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: or misbuild accounts, among other data inaccuracies. To help offset
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the costs for the necessary water infrastructure, the city recently
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: approved higher water rates for users. Residents will face about
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: twenty percent annual increases for at least five years. The
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Lake Michigan Water Sourcing Project is a joint venture between Yorkville, Oswego,
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and Montgomery, hooking up to existing water mains near Naperville
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: owned by the DuPage Water Commission. The three Kendall County
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: communities are sharing costs. An Environmental Protection Agency loan through
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act, can support up
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: to one hundred and seventy nine dollars of five million
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: dollars of those costs, leaving the remaining twenty percent to
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: be financed through Yorkville's bond issuance and Illinois EPA loan
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: proceeds