The City of Casper will be changing its water meter reading schedule next month to be more efficient, said City Officials, and that may have a temporary impact on customer water bills.

“We have been reading water meters since 1930 and the routes were developed to be efficient on foot,” said Jason Ostlund, meter services supervisor. “Now that we drive the routes and read the meters using radio signals, we can utilize technology to make us more efficient.”

About 16,305 of the water customers will be affected by the schedule change, said Ostlund, and April water bills may be higher or lower than normal.

“A sample scenario might be a water meter read the first week of March may not be read until the last week of April. In this example, the water bill would be higher than normal because the bill is for seven weeks of water use,” explained Ostlund. “We do want to emphasize that no customer will be charged for water they have not used.”

The May water bills will be back to normal reflecting a 4 week bill, according to Ostlund. City officials chose the timing for the change for the March and April cycles because water usage is at a low point for most customers.

The City of Casper provides drinking water to 23,339 customers, and its annual drinking water quality report is sent to customers every year in May. You can find more information on the water meter reading change and the drinking water quality report at the City Of Casper website, casperwy.gov.

More From K2 Radio