The Menlo Park Municipal Water District is currently replacing water meters in preparation for the switchover to automatic meter reading. Replacing a portion of the water meters in advance will minimize the City’s cost when the changeover does take place. Currently, the district is replacing or retrofitting water meters in the Branner Drive area (between Campbell Lane and Arnold Way) and the areas from the Civic Center to the Corporation Yard (between Burgess Drive, Laurel Street, Hopkins Street and Barron Street). This is approximately 200 new water meters. A good portion of the water meters are within the life expectancy, however crews must replace meters larger than 1” because no retrofit kits are available. The life expectancy of a water meter is approximately 20 years. Since January 2014, 326 water meters or approximately 8 percent have been replaced and by the end of 2016, the water district is scheduled to change out 10 percent of its water meters.


The existing 1” meters have been in the ground for 20 years and cannot be retrofitted with new digital read dials, so new digital meters must be installed.


Digital read meters, the new meters come with a digital dial and when a customer has a leak, the dial indicates how many gallons per minute is being used. 


Existing water meter shown before and after installation of retrofit.