SALISBURY — A few years ago, Salisbury-Rowan Utilities implemented its Smart Meter program to electronically study water usage, efficiently find potential leaks and obtain more precise billing information. To go along with this new program, SRU began spreading the word about the “EyeOnWater” app, where customers can download it to navigate just how much water they are actually using.

“You’d be surprised at what a toilet can do. It can do anywhere between three and 10 gallons per minute for 24 hours,” SRU Director Jim Behmer said. 

Behmer said less than 10 percent of customers have signed up for the free app. The city has been mentioning the “EyeOnWater” app on social media as well as sharing it during Leadership Rowan or Citizens Academy classes to ensure as many people as possible are aware of it. 

“It’s very easy to use, you don’t have to touch it much,” Behmer said. “The goal is for everyone to be able to monitor their usage, kind of like what you can do at Duke Energy.”

The app lets the customer set their own alerts through text or email to see how much water they use on a weekly, daily or hourly basis. It also has graphs and charts for customers to easily compare their water consumption with previous billing cycles. Behmer specified customers need to manually “opt in” to track constant usage. 

“It will allow you to find that constant usage earlier so there’s not such a large amount on the bill,” Behmer said. “If you have 24 hours of constant usage, that’s not necessarily a leak. One of our No. 1 complaints is constant usage, it turns out to be the flapper valve of a toilet. That’s technically not a leak, but it will notify you after 24 hours of constant usage if you set up your app.”

Behmer said during the city council retreat last month that SRU gets many questions about adjustments when people receive a higher than usual water bill. The city ordinance says customers can be reimbursed if it pertains to an underground or hidden water leak, but “air conditioners, commodes, faucets and those facilities subject to normal maintenance inspection” are not eligible. 

“Consumers shall pay the bill before a complaint is filed. We get that a lot, there’s a high bill complaint. Pay your bill because we will work on the adjustment, it takes some time to do that,” Behmer said. “The ones who have the app now and see it, their adjustments, if it is a true leak where they bring a plumbing repair, they may be only $10 or $20 when in the past they were $300.”

For more information, go to:

https://salisburync.gov/Government/Salisbury-Rowan-Utilities/Eye-On-Water-Water-Usage-App