August 4, 2022
 
To Garfield Residents,

The City of Garfield would like to take this opportunity to address some ongoing projects and initiatives related to our water system.

Water Meter Replacement Program

The City has approximately 6,400 water accounts serving our approximate 32,000 residents. Our current meters have outlived their service life and there are numerous meters that are either stopped or inaccurate. Inaccurate meters not only affect our ability to correctly bill our customers, it also impacts our ability to account for all of our water usage and efficiently operate our system.  We have been issuing estimated water bills to certain customers that we believe have either stopped or inaccurate meters. However, this is only a short-term solution.

The City is implementing a City-wide water meter replacement program. The project started last year and approximately 2,300 meters have been changed to date. The project will be fully complete, City-wide, in 2023. The new water meters will ensure each customer is billed for their actual consumption.

In addition to changing the meters, this project will also provide a wireless meter reading and billing system that will be able to monitor water consumption of every meter in real time. Real time monitoring will assist us in identifying unusual increases in water use that may result from broken or leaking fixtures in homes. The new system will assist us in our efforts to operate our system more efficiently, accurately report water use to the NJDEP, and issue correct bills to our customers.

The conversion from the old to the new system is being done as each meter is replaced and it is a time-consuming process. However, once the new system is fully operational, we will significantly reduce the cost of reading our meters and issuing bills.

Some customers may receive water bills that are significantly different than prior bills. There could be several reasons for a bill that is significantly different than prior bills. You may have been receiving either estimated bills or metered bills that incorrectly monitored your actual usage, perhaps due to a stopped meter. The new system will guarantee everyone pays for actual usage. Another reason may relate to estimated bills being issued during the conversion to our new billing system that incorrectly estimated your usage. If you believe your bill may be incorrect, please notify us and we will investigate through our billing agent, PVWC.

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