The Jamestown Board of Public Utilities announced that residential dual water meters are available during the COVID-19 period.

Customers who want to rent a meter for the summer should call the BPU Customer Service Office at 661-1660 or 661-1666 weekdays to make an appointment to pick up a meter.

Customer Service personnel on the phone will explain precautions that must be taken before a customer enters the BPU to collect the meter. Only one person will be permitted in the building at one time, for example, and must wear a face mask.

The residential dual meter program helps reduce sewer bills for larger amounts of outside watering needs. The utility provides this service for BPU residential water and wastewater customers whose accounts are current.

The BPU, like most other cities, uses the water meter in a home to determine charges for sanitary sewer use. The reason is that most of the water used in the home eventually flows into a sanitary sewer (for example, showers, clothes washing, dishwashing and toilets). Therefore, the BPU bill has two rates, one for water and one for sewer/wastewater.

Water that is used outside to water lawns, however, typically does not end up in the sewers. As a result, if customers use a lot of outside water, they are åpaying sewer charges for water that ultimately does not end up in the sewers.

To save residential customers money, the BPU offers dual water meters for residents to install at their homes by attaching one end of the meter to an outside house spigot and the other end to a garden hose. A customer may only participate if the residence has both water and wastewater (sewer) service through the Jamestown BPU.

Due to the limited number of dual meters, only one meter is allowed per residential customer.

To receive financial benefit from the program, a minimum of eight units of water (approximately 6,000 gallons) must pass through the dual meter during the period of use. This requirement is usually met with extensive lawn and garden watering.

The BPU Dual Meter program runs in monthly increments for ease of billing from May through September. An initial deposit of $50 is required when the customer picks up the meter. The deposit will be refunded in the form of a credit on the customer’s wastewater account after the program ends on September 30 and after the dual water meter has been returned in good working order to BPU Customer Service.

The customer’s water account will be charged a fee of $7.50 for the first month that the customer has the dual meter. The customer will be charged $2 for each month beyond the first month that the dual meter is used. At the end of the program when the customer returns the meter, the customer’s sewer credit will be calculated, and a one-time credit will be applied to the customer account, reimbursing them for sewer charges paid over the time the dual meter was used.

Customers with dual meters must return their meters to the BPU Customer Service Office by Oct. 14 or deposits could be forfeited along with any sewer credit earned. If the meter is damaged, the deposit will be used to defray the costs to repair the meter.