clm-dd43c3c411b2c9de
quantitative
picked Aclara's fixed radio network in 2009
📖 Deep dive
SFPUC Automated Water Meter Programme
🇺🇸 San Francisco · 7 min read
SFPUC wired 175,000 water meters for hourly readings in 2010, built leak alerts an outside evaluation says work — and then the transmitters aged out and 8,000 households stopped getting bills. The full life cycle of smart-city hardware, in one programme.
This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.
37 sourced claims on this page, none individually verified yet — turn on “Sources in the text” to see each one.
How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page
✎ Updated 20 Aug 2026 Publication date recorded for 13 sources. · 2 revisions in all What changed →
Marks every sourced claim in the text — click a mark to see the source behind it.
- What happened
- San Francisco wired radio transmitters to about 178,000 water meters starting in June 2010, a decade before most American utilities thought it worth the money, and turned the hourly readings into a leak alert that nobody has to sign up for. The transmitters were sold with a “20-year permanent battery”. They began failing after roughly twelve, and by September 2024 about 8,200 customers had quietly stopped receiving bills.
- What the evidence shows
- The alerts do the thing they were built to do: of 2,138 households SFPUC surveyed, 77 percent did not know about the water use until the notice arrived, and 45 percent fixed it without a plumber. Almost everything else here is the operator describing its own programme — one outside evaluation, by the Alliance for Water Efficiency in 2023, is the only independent look in sixteen years.
- What's still open
- What the replacement will cost, who installed the original meters, and what the 2010 rollout finally cost are all unpublished, and no successor contract has surfaced in the Commission’s public resolution logs. SFPUC’s delayed-bills FAQ still speaks in the present tense.
Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence📊 Independent
what does this mean?
The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →Scale🏙️ City-wide
Cost≈$50M (2010 press figure; a 2014 press account put spending at $56M)
FundingSFPUC water ratepayers
Part of 1001 Smart Cities — 1,167 documented projects · 🏙️ 9 more in San Francisco · 💧 Water guide · 📡 Data & IoT projects
The radio is smaller than a fist. It sits in a cast-iron box under the pavement, wired to the meter beneath it, and it talks for about a tenth of a second at a time. San Francisco began fitting them in June 2010, one per address, a decade before most American utilities thought the money worth spending. They did what the brochure said for roughly twelve years. Then they started to fail, faster than crews could replace them, and by September 2024 about 8,200 customers had quietly stopped receiving bills.
178,000water accounts wired with radio transmitters since 2010
every houra reading per meter, transmitted in six-hour batches to 81 collectors
77%of alerted customers did not know they had a leak (SFPUC survey, n=2,138)
~8,200customers left unbilled for months when the ageing radios stopped reporting
Why San Francisco went first
Until 2010, most residential meters in San Francisco were read by a person walking the block once every two months. In November 2009 the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission picked Aclara's STAR fixed radio network, and on 7 June 2010 it began what was announced as a two-year, $50 million replacement of more than 175,000 meters, funded by a 91-cent charge on every monthly water bill. The two years slipped — the Alliance for Water Efficiency dates the installation as "primarily occurring from 2010 to 2013", and a final-completion line was still sitting in the capital budget in FY2021 — but the coverage claim held: SFPUC says transmitters are now in place at nearly all of the city's 178,000 accounts.
The design is worth pausing on, because it explains both the system's endurance and its ending. Each meter transmission unit takes a reading every hour and sends its batch four times a day, in radio bursts of less than a tenth of a second, to one of 81 collectors around the city. There is no network listening for a wake-up call: the transmitter fires on a timer and goes back to sleep. That transmit-only discipline is what let the vendor's 2008 specification sheet promise a "20-year permanent battery" — a number that becomes important later in this story.
Sixteen years in ten dates
| When | What happened | Who says so |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 2009 | SFPUC selects Aclara's STAR fixed radio network for a citywide rollout | Trade press / vendor |
| Jun 2010 | Installation begins — announced as a two-year, $50M effort funded by a 91-cent monthly bill charge | Press |
| 2013 | Installation "primarily" complete; over 99% of ~180,000 retail connections on the system | Independent (AWE) |
| May 2014 | My Account portal opens hourly and daily usage to customers — launched mid-drought, four years after installation began | Operator / press |
| 2015 | Leak notification piloted as weekly postcards, driven by a weekly Aclara continuous-usage report | Independent (AWE) / trade press |
| 2017 | The automated Leak Alert programme replaces the postcards | Independent (AWE) |
| Aug 2021 | Alerts extended beyond homes to commercial and large multi-family accounts; SFPUC estimates 47M gallons saved in the prior fiscal year | Operator |
| Mar 2023 | The Alliance for Water Efficiency publishes the programme's only outside statistical evaluation | Independent |
| Sep 2024 | The billing failure becomes public: ~8,200 customers unbilled for months, some over a year, as ageing transmitters stop reporting | Press / operator |
| 2026 | SFPUC's delayed-bills FAQ still speaks in the present tense; no successor contract has appeared in the Commission's public resolution logs | Operator, by omission |
What an hourly reading is actually for
The point of hourly data is not the bill — a bimonthly walk-by could produce that. The point is the shape of the curve. A household that never sleeps is a household with a leak, and SFPUC's alert fires when a small account runs 7.5 gallons an hour or more for 48 hours without a break. Large buildings get subtler screens: night-time consumption between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. compared against the account's own 90-day average, because a hotel that never sleeps is normal and a school that never sleeps is not.
Nobody signs up for any of this — it is a blanket courtesy across every transmitting meter. And the survey data SFPUC has collected since August 2020 is the best argument for it: of 2,138 responding households, 77 percent did not know about the water use until the notice arrived. More than half traced it to a leaky toilet; 45 percent fixed the problem themselves without a plumber. The follow-through is patient rather than forceful — a second notice after two weeks, a third after ten, and after 100 days an inspector hangs a final paper notice on the door. What never follows is enforcement: no fine, no shut-off, no obligation. San Francisco's alert is information, offered politely, with the water still running.
There is an honest gap in the delivery layer, and SFPUC's own case study names it: the utility has a phone number or e-mail address for only about half of its customers. Everyone else gets the slow path — a letter.
The rare thing: an evaluation from outside
Most leak-alert programmes in this atlas rest entirely on the operator's own arithmetic. San Francisco's is the unusual one: in March 2023 the Alliance for Water Efficiency published a four-utility statistical evaluation with SFPUC as a case study, comparing mean leak volume per meter before and after each programme launched.
Non-municipal irrigation meters independent, AWE
−51%
Multi-family buildings independent, AWE
−18%
City's own municipal meters not significant
±0
Single-family homes also showed a statistically significant reduction (about 0.63 gallons per meter per day); the study reports no clean percentage for SFPUC's single-family programme alone. Pre/post design with a nine-month baseline, no control group; SFPUC part-funded its own case-study participation.
The most telling row is the one that failed. Alerts to the city government's own irrigation meters — parks, medians, public grounds — produced no significant effect, while identical alerts to private irrigation accounts cut leak volume in half. The difference was not the technology: private customers were notified by an automated daily e-mail, while the city's own departments were chased manually, "depending on the availability of water department staff". The utility that automated leak detection for everyone else had not automated the follow-up to itself. SFPUC has since fixed this — but as a finding about how these systems really work, it is hard to beat: the sensor is never the bottleneck; the person the message reaches is.
One caution against over-reading: the AWE study is a pre/post comparison, not a controlled trial, and SFPUC was one of four utilities that co-funded its own case study. The nearest gold-standard evidence for the mechanism — a randomized controlled trial published in Environmental Research Letters in 2024, which attributed 92.8 percent of measured conservation to leak detection and repair — ran across the bay at East Bay MUD, a different utility. It supports the genre, not this programme.
The radios age out
Every fixed-network meter system carries a countdown that nobody advertises on launch day. The vendor's specification sheet promised a 20-year battery; SFPUC's own capital plan budgets $40.2 million to replace "the entire AWMP System by the end of its 20-year useful life (ending in 2031)". The failures did not wait for the schedule. By 2024, transmitters installed in 2010–2012 were falling silent in numbers the repair crews could not match, and the meters beneath them — still measuring correctly — had no way to tell the billing system what they saw.
Staffing and equipment shortages left us unable to keep up with repairing our aging automated metering equipment. The situation was exacerbated by supply chain delays.
— SFPUC, Delayed Water and Sewer Bills FAQ
The public found out through the mailbox, not a press release. In September 2024, local outlet 48hills reported that some 8,000 households had not received a water bill in months; television news put the count at about 8,200, some unbilled for over a year. The catch-up bills were real money — at a typical $140 a month for a single-family home, ten silent months meant a four-figure demand. SFPUC waived interest and late fees and offered payment plans, but the consumption itself stayed owed: the courtesy that never enforced a leak alert also never forgave a bill.
What happens next is, as of mid-2026, genuinely unwritten. SFPUC's FAQ says it is "evaluating and upgrading" the transponder system, and its job postings name an AMI Lifecycle Management Project — but no successor contract, vendor, cost or schedule has appeared in the Commission's public resolution logs. A city that spent $50 million learning what hourly water data is worth now gets to decide, in public, what the second generation is worth.
📊 Impact
An independent 2023 evaluation by the Alliance for Water Efficiency found the leak alerts cut mean leak volume per meter by a statistically significant margin for single-family homes, by 18% for multi-family buildings and by 51% on non-municipal irrigation meters — while alerts to the city's own municipal meters, still handled manually at the time, showed no significant effect. SFPUC itself estimated 47 million gallons saved in the fiscal year before August 2021, and in its surveys 77% of notified customers had not known they had a leak.
🎓 Lesson
A meter that reports hourly can still fail to bill. The vendor's data sheet promised a 20-year battery, and SFPUC's capital plan schedules replacement of the system by the end of its 20-year useful life in 2031 — yet by September 2024 about 8,200 customers had gone months, some more than a year, without a bill, because the utility could not keep up with repairing its ageing transmitters. The alerts, meanwhile, remain a courtesy with nothing enforced behind them.
Sources
↗ SFPUC — About Your Water Meter (authority)The operator's own description of the system. Supports: 'Meter transmission units are now in place for nearly all of San Francisco's 178,000 water accounts'; the Aclara Fixed Network AMI STAR System reading 'more than 96% of San Francisco's water accounts'; the MTU collecting a reading each hour and sending to a collector 'Every six hours'; 'A total of 81 Data Collectors are located throughout the city'; and the My Account data going live in Spring 2014 with downloadable daily and monthly reports.
↗ SFPUC — Leak Alerts: Find and Fix Leaks (authority)Currency check and the mechanics. A 'courtesy Leak Alert Program' that 'reviews hourly water use for all meters that transmit data to us electronically', with no sign-up needed; alerts after '48 hours of continuous water use of 7.5 gallons an hour or more' at small accounts, and on overnight use 100% or 300% above the 90-day average at large ones. Gives the current operating figure: 'over 170,000 meters serving 165,000-plus customers'. Confirms My Account is the live customer portal in 2026.
↗ SFPUC — Announces Expansion of Leak Alert Program (12 August 2021)The only quantified result found, and it is self-reported: 'In the last fiscal year, the Leak Alert program saved SFPUC customers an estimated 47 million gallons of water.' Also dates the extension of alerts beyond homes to 'commercial and industrial properties and larger multi-family buildings', and gives the commercial thresholds (increases of 50 percent or more in use over 90 days, plus nightly spikes).
↗ Government Technology — San Francisco Water Meters to Detect Leaks, Help Customers Track Usage (26 July 2010)Anchors the start and the money: the SFPUC 'on June 7 began its automated water meter program, a two-year effort'; 'San Francisco started replacing its 175,000-plus water meters in June'; and 'The $50 million program is being funded by a 91-cent fee that's being tacked onto ratepayers' monthly bills.' The cost and the funding mechanism rest on this press account only — no SFPUC or Controller cost document was reachable. Also records that the online-viewing component was expected to lag the installation, which it did by four years.
↗ WaterWorld — San Francisco chooses Aclara AMI system to track water consumption (24 November 2009)Dates the vendor selection to November 2009 and describes the STAR Network: low-frequency radio, hourly readings sent four times a day, replacing manual reads taken every two months residentially. Carries the claim that SFPUC 'will be the first major California water utility to install Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology to track water consumption' — a vendor-announcement claim in trade press, deliberately not used in the entry.
Show 8 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ SFPUC — Delayed Water and Sewer Bills, Frequently Asked Questions (authority)The utility's own account of the failure. 'A technical problem led to some customers not receiving a water and sewer bill for several months. The problem was caused by certain transponders on water meters' — the meters read correctly but 'the transponders were not sending that data electronically to our billing system.' The admission: 'Staffing and equipment shortages left us unable to keep up with repairing our aging automated metering equipment. The situation was exacerbated by supply chain delays.' Also states SFPUC is 'in the process of evaluating and upgrading our meter transponder system', which is the only evidence of a second generation — no contract, count or schedule is given.
↗ KTVU FOX 2 — Unexpected water bills to hit thousands of San Francisco mailboxes (24 September 2024)Scales the billing failure: about 8,200 residents affected, some three months without a bill and others a year or more, with SFPUC saying customers are not charged for the repair but remain liable for the service received. Press account; SFPUC has not published a customer count of its own.
↗ Alliance for Water Efficiency — Smart Practices to Save Water: An Evaluation of AMI-enabled Proactive Leak Notification Programs (March 2023)Published March 2023The evaluation that carries this entry's grade — the only outside statistical assessment of the programme. Dates the rollout ('implementation primarily occurring from 2010 to 2013', 'Over 99 percent of its approximately 180,000 retail service connections'), the portal (2014; 'about 53 percent of SFPUC's customers were registered' by spring 2022), the postcard pilot (2015) and the automated programme (2017). Results: SFPUC's single-family programme is one of 'three of the four' with statistically significant reductions; multi-family 'registered an 18 percent reduction'; non-municipal irrigation meters 'a statistically significant 51 percent reduction'; 'Notifications to municipal meters did not result in a statistically significant difference.' Survey (n=2,138): '77 percent were not aware of the usage until they received the notice.' Disclosed limits: pre/post comparison with a nine-month pre-period, no control group, and SFPUC is one of four utility partners that 'provided funding to serve as case studies' — the reason this grades independent, not peer-reviewed.
↗ SFPUC — 10-Year Capital Plan FY 2023-24 – FY 2032-33 (authority)Published 14 February 2023The utility's own replacement arithmetic: 'Local Water – Automated Meter Reading System: $40.2 million. This program provides funding for the ongoing Automated Water Meter Program (AWMP) including meter renewal, replacement, automation, and replacement planning for the entire AWMP System by the end of its 20-year useful life (ending in 2031).' The transmitters started failing at scale seven years before that end date. An earlier scenario line ('AWMP Completion (FY21)') also shows final installation was still a budget item in FY2021.
↗ Aclara — STAR Network Water MTU specification sheet (©2008, vendor)Published 2008Vendor material, used deliberately as the claim the failure is measured against, not as support: 'Contains a 20-year permanent battery.' Also documents the design that made the battery last: 'STAR Network MTUs are capable of one- or two-way communications' but transmit on a timer 'over FCC-licensed, 450- to 470-MHz radio frequencies' — in San Francisco the deployment operates transmit-only, per SFPUC's own description of six-hourly sub-second bursts. Mirrored on a distributor site; the vendor's original page is gone.
↗ 48hills — Thousands of SF residents about to get a huge backdated water bill (19 September 2024)The report that broke the billing story, five days before the TV coverage: 'Some 8,000 households in San Francisco haven't received a water bill in months.' Scales the hardship — at typical bills of roughly $50/month for an apartment and $140/month for a single-family home, 'ten months without a bill could mean a sudden payment of more than $1,000' — and carries the general manager's response that SFPUC 'plans on accommodating' hardship cases via payment plans and the 25-40% low-income discount.
↗ Municipal Sewer & Water Magazine — Leading the Fight Against Non-Revenue Water (24 August 2015)Trade press quoting the programme's manager mid-drought, when the alerts were still weekly postcards: 'The Aclara report tells us which accounts have exhibited continuous usage every hour over a three-day reporting period each week' and 'The utility reaches out to those who show up on the report by sending weekly postcards.' Frames the drought context: utilities scrambling 'to meet government mandates for a statewide 25 percent reduction in water usage.'
↗ Rupiper et al. — AMI water meters deliver end-use water and financial savings in leaky households (Environmental Research Letters, September 2024)Published 24 September 2024Context only — this randomized controlled trial ran at East Bay Municipal Utility District across the bay, not at SFPUC, and must never be read as evidence for this entry. It is cited because it is the nearest peer-reviewed test of the same mechanism: '92.8% of the estimated water conservation is attributable to leak detection and repair.' It shows what the gold-standard evaluation SFPUC has never had would look like.
📅 How old is the evidence?
Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2010. 10 of 13 sources carry a publication date, from 2008 to 24 September 2024.
When the sources were published
- Hocutt, Inc. · vendorAclara — STAR Network Water MTU specification sheet (©2008, vendor)
- WaterWorld · pressWaterWorld — San Francisco chooses Aclara AMI system to track water consumption (24 November 2009)
- Government Technology (e.Republic) · pressGovernment Technology — San Francisco Water Meters to Detect Leaks, Help Customers Track Usage (26 July 2010)
- Municipal Sewer & Water Magazine · pressMunicipal Sewer & Water Magazine — Leading the Fight Against Non-Revenue Water (24 August 2015)
- San Francisco Public Utilities Commission · utilitySFPUC — Announces Expansion of Leak Alert Program (12 August 2021)
- San Francisco Public Utilities Commission · utilitySFPUC — 10-Year Capital Plan FY 2023-24 – FY 2032-33 (authority)
- Alliance for Water Efficiency · ngoAlliance for Water Efficiency — Smart Practices to Save Water: An Evaluation of AMI-enabled Proactive Leak Notification Programs (March 2023)
- 48 Hills · press48hills — Thousands of SF residents about to get a huge backdated water bill (19 September 2024)
Show 2 more dated sourcesShow fewer
- KTVU FOX 2 · pressKTVU FOX 2 — Unexpected water bills to hit thousands of San Francisco mailboxes (24 September 2024)
- IOP Publishing · researchRupiper et al. — AMI water meters deliver end-use water and financial savings in leaky households (Environmental Research Letters, September 2024)
What happened to this record
Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 43 claims with their sources · the forensic record
What this page rests on — and what it can't tell you
Thirteen sources carry this entry: SFPUC's own programme pages, capital plan and FAQ, the AWE evaluation, the vendor's specification sheet, and the press accounts that broke the billing story. Four things the record honestly cannot answer: who physically installed the meters (no contractor is named in any reachable document), the final as-built cost (press figures range from $50M in 2010 to $56M by 2014, with no primary cost document public), when the original rollout was formally declared complete (no announcement exists), and what the replacement will cost. Anyone who finds a primary source for any of these improves this page — the “Report an error” link at the foot of this page is how.
Evidence Passport · public beta 43 addressable claims, 13 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. 37 of them are marked in the text above; the other 6 belong to a passage this page does not print, so they can be read here but not clicked in the article. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.
Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 43
The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.
clm-b7ac55b8e0995f57
quantitative
began replacing San Francisco's roughly 175,000 water meters in June 2010
Sources carrying this claim
clm-18482db4b092703d
quantitative
Transmitters now cover more than 96% of accounts
Sources carrying this claim
clm-bb1afc5f7cb1c29e
quantitative
sending hourly readings to 81 collectors
Sources carrying this claim
clm-73127f16c6fc714d
quantitative
a courtesy leak alert flags 48 hours of constant flow
Sources carrying this claim
clm-e728af0bf02ba69f
descriptive
Ageing transmitters have since left thousands unbilled
Sources carrying this claim
clm-30d6a16775d4780f
descriptive
cut mean leak volume per meter by a statistically significant margin for single-family homes
Sources carrying this claim
clm-35b19c7ef69f5ded
quantitative
by 18% for multi-family buildings
Sources carrying this claim
clm-060bdddbaff03bc6
quantitative
by 51% on non-municipal irrigation meters
Sources carrying this claim
clm-9518e21f7be4da53
descriptive
alerts to the city's own municipal meters, still handled manually at the time, showed no significant effect
Sources carrying this claim
clm-c5756bfa2ff2df74
quantitative
SFPUC itself estimated 47 million gallons saved in the fiscal year before August 2021
Sources carrying this claim
clm-8ca4743dd6d51d2d
quantitative
77% of notified customers had not known they had a leak
Sources carrying this claim
clm-f69a46cb398ca6c4
quantitative
The vendor's data sheet promised a 20-year battery
Sources carrying this claim
clm-3267d66073270131
quantitative
schedules replacement of the system by the end of its 20-year useful life in 2031
Sources carrying this claim
clm-d24450b2fa17c9ea
quantitative
by September 2024 about 8,200 customers had gone months, some more than a year, without a bill
Sources carrying this claim
clm-46dd1a498ff91f72
descriptive
the utility could not keep up with repairing its ageing transmitters
Sources carrying this claim
clm-0b04a6c6fccab9d2
descriptive
remain a courtesy with nothing enforced behind them
Sources carrying this claim
clm-ac80ae8f692e2e2f
quantitative
by September 2024 about 8,200 customers had quietly stopped receiving bills
Sources carrying this claim
clm-2a61776afae44118
descriptive
most residential meters in San Francisco were read by a person walking the block once every two months
Sources carrying this claim
clm-3252d379f914577f
quantitative
In November 2009 the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission picked Aclara's STAR fixed radio network
Sources carrying this claim
clm-35c58caff4b6cc1a
quantitative
on 7 June 2010 it began what was announced as a two-year, $50 million replacement of more than 175,000 meters
Sources carrying this claim
clm-fa89a71a6479879c
quantitative
funded by a 91-cent charge on every monthly water bill
Sources carrying this claim
clm-c174fd8c97910419
quantitative
the Alliance for Water Efficiency dates the installation as "primarily occurring from 2010 to 2013"
Sources carrying this claim
clm-6c5b7f1ba86b2ecc
quantitative
a final-completion line was still sitting in the capital budget in FY2021
Sources carrying this claim
clm-37d496ac573523ba
quantitative
transmitters are now in place at nearly all of the city's 178,000 accounts
Sources carrying this claim
clm-46769ad28bd44458
quantitative
Each meter transmission unit takes a reading every hour and sends its batch four times a day, in radio bursts of less than a tenth of a second, to one of 81 collectors around the city
Sources carrying this claim
clm-49b929e8ddca3dd5
quantitative
"20-year permanent battery"
Sources carrying this claim
clm-202d33c9c9c25ae4
quantitative
alert fires when a small account runs 7.5 gallons an hour or more for 48 hours without a break
Sources carrying this claim
clm-91887ec47240c5f2
quantitative
night-time consumption between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. compared against the account's own 90-day average
Sources carrying this claim
clm-d6c557a68628d709
quantitative
77 percent did not know about the water use until the notice arrived
Sources carrying this claim
clm-20184d496af14a7e
quantitative
More than half traced it to a leaky toilet; 45 percent fixed the problem themselves without a plumber
Sources carrying this claim
clm-79b8039a596c31fa
quantitative
a second notice after two weeks, a third after ten, and after 100 days an inspector hangs a final paper notice on the door
Sources carrying this claim
clm-59b5fe2bb679b6fb
descriptive
the utility has a phone number or e-mail address for only about half of its customers
Sources carrying this claim
clm-172e7856f32940de
quantitative
in March 2023 the Alliance for Water Efficiency published a four-utility statistical evaluation with SFPUC as a case study
Sources carrying this claim
clm-820eeb3f466ccfc8
descriptive
identical alerts to private irrigation accounts cut leak volume in half
Sources carrying this claim
clm-e4932834068ce5e7
descriptive
"depending on the availability of water department staff"
Sources carrying this claim
clm-ae2859bd7788ea8c
quantitative
attributed 92.8 percent of measured conservation to leak detection and repair
Sources carrying this claim
clm-847d5fc46e37a82b
quantitative
budgets $40.2 million to replace "the entire AWMP System by the end of its 20-year useful life (ending in 2031)"
Sources carrying this claim
clm-99a8dbfaefc73ed0
quantitative
local outlet 48hills reported that some 8,000 households had not received a water bill in months
Sources carrying this claim
clm-8cd5b84fc8a6c95b
quantitative
television news put the count at about 8,200, some unbilled for over a year
Sources carrying this claim
clm-98f79c5448c62190
quantitative
at a typical $140 a month for a single-family home
Sources carrying this claim
clm-4c1c4e53f6df19d4
descriptive
SFPUC waived interest and late fees and offered payment plans, but the consumption itself stayed owed
Sources carrying this claim
clm-7f9bc34b1acd5a26
descriptive
says it is "evaluating and upgrading" the transponder system
Sources carrying this claim
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders
This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.
unreviewed
Revision 2026-08-20-source-dates
effective 2026-08-12 · created 2026-08-20
Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.
sha256:c1972b1931b16cc6cc29ce6c0b490f35d9e158e9a9ada283bcdacb99cd802de4
- 43
- of 43 claims mapped
- 13
- source dossiers
- 8
- publication dates recorded
- 0
- archives linked
- 0
- exact locators
- 0
- content captures hashed
Governance facts carried by the record
- Operator
- San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)
- Actor types
- utility
- Funding model
- utility
- Funding description
- SFPUC water ratepayers
- Cost
- ≈$50M (2010 press figure; a 2014 press account put spending at $56M)
- Ownership
- Not recorded
- Decision rights
- Not recorded
- Exit conditions
- Not recorded
13 source dossiers
SFPUC — About Your Water Meter (authority)
- Stable source ID
src-05d56ac19f794358- Publisher
- Name not classified · sfpuc.gov
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The operator's own description of the system. Supports: 'Meter transmission units are now in place for nearly all of San Francisco's 178,000 water accounts'; the Aclara Fixed Network AMI STAR System reading 'more than 96% of San Francisco's water accounts'; the MTU collecting a reading each hour and sending to a collector 'Every six hours'; 'A total of 81 Data Collectors are located throughout the city'; and the My Account data going live in Spring 2014 with downloadable daily and monthly reports.
SFPUC — Leak Alerts: Find and Fix Leaks (authority)
- Stable source ID
src-a77ce079bd7d6b86- Publisher
- Name not classified · sfpuc.gov
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Currency check and the mechanics. A 'courtesy Leak Alert Program' that 'reviews hourly water use for all meters that transmit data to us electronically', with no sign-up needed; alerts after '48 hours of continuous water use of 7.5 gallons an hour or more' at small accounts, and on overnight use 100% or 300% above the 90-day average at large ones. Gives the current operating figure: 'over 170,000 meters serving 165,000-plus customers'. Confirms My Account is the live customer portal in 2026.
SFPUC — Announces Expansion of Leak Alert Program (12 August 2021)
- Stable source ID
src-926fe954f024ded3- Publisher
- Name not classified · sfpuc.gov
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2021-08-12
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The only quantified result found, and it is self-reported: 'In the last fiscal year, the Leak Alert program saved SFPUC customers an estimated 47 million gallons of water.' Also dates the extension of alerts beyond homes to 'commercial and industrial properties and larger multi-family buildings', and gives the commercial thresholds (increases of 50 percent or more in use over 90 days, plus nightly spikes).
- Claims linked
Government Technology — San Francisco Water Meters to Detect Leaks, Help Customers Track Usage (26 July 2010)
- Stable source ID
src-068f65ccc40d3705- Publisher
- Name not classified · govtech.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2010-07-26
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Anchors the start and the money: the SFPUC 'on June 7 began its automated water meter program, a two-year effort'; 'San Francisco started replacing its 175,000-plus water meters in June'; and 'The $50 million program is being funded by a 91-cent fee that's being tacked onto ratepayers' monthly bills.' The cost and the funding mechanism rest on this press account only — no SFPUC or Controller cost document was reachable. Also records that the online-viewing component was expected to lag the installation, which it did by four years.
WaterWorld — San Francisco chooses Aclara AMI system to track water consumption (24 November 2009)
- Stable source ID
src-3a2f4d31d443496d- Publisher
- Name not classified · waterworld.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2009-11-24
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Dates the vendor selection to November 2009 and describes the STAR Network: low-frequency radio, hourly readings sent four times a day, replacing manual reads taken every two months residentially. Carries the claim that SFPUC 'will be the first major California water utility to install Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) technology to track water consumption' — a vendor-announcement claim in trade press, deliberately not used in the entry.
- Claims linked
SFPUC — Delayed Water and Sewer Bills, Frequently Asked Questions (authority)
- Stable source ID
src-08dc890a504c86b0- Publisher
- Name not classified · sfpuc.gov
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The utility's own account of the failure. 'A technical problem led to some customers not receiving a water and sewer bill for several months. The problem was caused by certain transponders on water meters' — the meters read correctly but 'the transponders were not sending that data electronically to our billing system.' The admission: 'Staffing and equipment shortages left us unable to keep up with repairing our aging automated metering equipment. The situation was exacerbated by supply chain delays.' Also states SFPUC is 'in the process of evaluating and upgrading our meter transponder system', which is the only evidence of a second generation — no contract, count or schedule is given.
KTVU FOX 2 — Unexpected water bills to hit thousands of San Francisco mailboxes (24 September 2024)
- Stable source ID
src-4e6e4249e6d8ce0b- Publisher
- Name not classified · ktvu.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2024-09-24
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Scales the billing failure: about 8,200 residents affected, some three months without a bill and others a year or more, with SFPUC saying customers are not charged for the repair but remain liable for the service received. Press account; SFPUC has not published a customer count of its own.
Alliance for Water Efficiency — Smart Practices to Save Water: An Evaluation of AMI-enabled Proactive Leak Notification Programs (March 2023)
- Stable source ID
src-32de3bffb656d438- Publisher
- Name not classified · allianceforwaterefficiency.org
- Type / language
- pdf · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The evaluation that carries this entry's grade — the only outside statistical assessment of the programme. Dates the rollout ('implementation primarily occurring from 2010 to 2013', 'Over 99 percent of its approximately 180,000 retail service connections'), the portal (2014; 'about 53 percent of SFPUC's customers were registered' by spring 2022), the postcard pilot (2015) and the automated programme (2017). Results: SFPUC's single-family programme is one of 'three of the four' with statistically significant reductions; multi-family 'registered an 18 percent reduction'; non-municipal irrigation meters 'a statistically significant 51 percent reduction'; 'Notifications to municipal meters did not result in a statistically significant difference.' Survey (n=2,138): '77 percent were not aware of the usage until they received the notice.' Disclosed limits: pre/post comparison with a nine-month pre-period, no control group, and SFPUC is one of four utility partners that 'provided funding to serve as case studies' — the reason this grades independent, not peer-reviewed.
SFPUC — 10-Year Capital Plan FY 2023-24 – FY 2032-33 (authority)
- Stable source ID
src-079a5e52f9345467- Publisher
- Name not classified · sfpuc.gov
- Type / language
- pdf · language not classified
- Published
- 2023-02-14
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The utility's own replacement arithmetic: 'Local Water – Automated Meter Reading System: $40.2 million. This program provides funding for the ongoing Automated Water Meter Program (AWMP) including meter renewal, replacement, automation, and replacement planning for the entire AWMP System by the end of its 20-year useful life (ending in 2031).' The transmitters started failing at scale seven years before that end date. An earlier scenario line ('AWMP Completion (FY21)') also shows final installation was still a budget item in FY2021.
Aclara — STAR Network Water MTU specification sheet (©2008, vendor)
- Stable source ID
src-4e4219ba1d9b4c34- Publisher
- Name not classified · hocutt.com
- Type / language
- pdf · language not classified
- Published
- Not recorded
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Vendor material, used deliberately as the claim the failure is measured against, not as support: 'Contains a 20-year permanent battery.' Also documents the design that made the battery last: 'STAR Network MTUs are capable of one- or two-way communications' but transmit on a timer 'over FCC-licensed, 450- to 470-MHz radio frequencies' — in San Francisco the deployment operates transmit-only, per SFPUC's own description of six-hourly sub-second bursts. Mirrored on a distributor site; the vendor's original page is gone.
- Claims linked
48hills — Thousands of SF residents about to get a huge backdated water bill (19 September 2024)
- Stable source ID
src-45982861eb30666b- Publisher
- Name not classified · 48hills.org
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2024-09-19
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
The report that broke the billing story, five days before the TV coverage: 'Some 8,000 households in San Francisco haven't received a water bill in months.' Scales the hardship — at typical bills of roughly $50/month for an apartment and $140/month for a single-family home, 'ten months without a bill could mean a sudden payment of more than $1,000' — and carries the general manager's response that SFPUC 'plans on accommodating' hardship cases via payment plans and the 25-40% low-income discount.
Municipal Sewer & Water Magazine — Leading the Fight Against Non-Revenue Water (24 August 2015)
- Stable source ID
src-aad1e0fd7076a98b- Publisher
- Name not classified · mswmag.com
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2015-08-24
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Trade press quoting the programme's manager mid-drought, when the alerts were still weekly postcards: 'The Aclara report tells us which accounts have exhibited continuous usage every hour over a three-day reporting period each week' and 'The utility reaches out to those who show up on the report by sending weekly postcards.' Frames the drought context: utilities scrambling 'to meet government mandates for a statewide 25 percent reduction in water usage.'
- Claims linked
- Background source; no baseline claim points here
Rupiper et al. — AMI water meters deliver end-use water and financial savings in leaky households (Environmental Research Letters, September 2024)
- Stable source ID
src-8e38aaa134894c7d- Publisher
- Name not classified · iopscience.iop.org
- Type / language
- web-page · language not classified
- Published
- 2024-09-24
- Updated
- Not recorded
- Source last checked
- No source-level check date
- Record last verified
- 2026-08-12
- Dossier created
- 2026-08-20
- Retrieved copy
- No local capture recorded
- Archive
- No archived copy linked
- Content hash
- No captured content hash
- Locator
- Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Open the recorded source note
Context only — this randomized controlled trial ran at East Bay Municipal Utility District across the bay, not at SFPUC, and must never be read as evidence for this entry. It is cited because it is the nearest peer-reviewed test of the same mechanism: '92.8% of the estimated water conservation is attributable to leak detection and repair.' It shows what the gold-standard evaluation SFPUC has never had would look like.
- Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
- Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
- Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
- A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
- The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.
Continue exploring
Compare this project
🇺🇸 NYC Automated Water Meter Reading Network · New York City
Two fixed-radio rollouts of one generation: New York finished in 2012 and audited it; San Francisco's radios aged out and stopped billing.
🇰🇷 Busan Remote Water Metering · Busan
Busan is 27.7% converted after seven years on its own LoRa network; San Francisco radioed 175,000 meters in a two-year push from 2010.
🇵🇪 SEDAPAL Smart Water Meters — Remote Shutoff Pilot · Lima
Lima's pilot meters can shut a valve remotely; San Francisco's hourly reads only trigger a courtesy alert with nothing behind it.
Explore the wider context
📎 Cite this project
1001 Smart Cities (2026). “SFPUC Automated Water Meter Programme” — San Francisco, United States. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/sf-automated-water-meters/ (last verified 2026-08-12). Data: CC BY 4.0.
The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.